Human Patient Simulator Brings Cutting-Edge Technology to School of Nursing

Nursing students training on the METI patient simulator

Meet one of the newest additions to the nursing school's clinical staff: Sam.

Sam, dark-haired and about 5 foot 10 and 180 pounds, is willing to give his life to train nursing students. The good news is that even if he does die during a procedure, Sam will be available for that student and others to try again, since he is the School of Nursing's new Human Patient Simulator (HPS).

A "Culture of Safety"

The Institute of Medicine estimates that medical error results in between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths per year, placing it among the leading causes of death in the United States. Until recently, nursing schools have had few opportunities to allow students to make mistakes and learn from them, because doing so would compromise patient care. Now, with the use of the simulators, students are allowed to make decisions and implement care which may not be effective; however, they can then redesign the care and learn to achieve more desirable outcomes. Transferring this increased knowledge to real patients reduces errors and expands the students' confidence in handling a variety of crises situations.

The HPS is a computer-model-driven, full-sized mannequin that simulates human physical responses and allows students to experience first-hand the variety of physical reactions and symptoms that can accompany different medical scenarios.

Because the HPS imitates the human response in a multi-layered, real-time way, it inspires in the students a "suspension of disbelief" that encourages the ability to transfer an acquired skill from a simulator to a clinical setting. The use of the HPS is effective in training health care professionals to achieve the advanced levels of communication, training and teamwork necessary to ensure a "culture of safety" by enhancing the readiness of students to encounter actual human patients in the clinical setting.

Cutting-Edge Technology in the Classroom

SDSU's nursing faculty use the HPS to provide students with training in physical assessment skills and medical techniques.

Before beginning the lesson, the instructor creates a patient profile that offers a specific set of cardiovascular, pulmonary and metabolic characteristics and responses. With a few strategic alterations, "Sam" can even become "Samantha" to assist students learning procedures specific to female patients. The instructor then chooses from more than 70 event scenarios or creates a new one-allowing students to "rescue" their patient from many more situations than they are likely to encounter during their hospital training.

"They have to make critical decisions without hospital staff taking charge of the care," says school director Patt Wahl, explaining the intensity of training with the HPS. "Our students feel the pressure, and that the decisions they make in giving care to their patient have to be right."