On May 12, 2005, the Emergency Medicine Learning & Resource Center launched the State of Florida’s only emergency medicine simulation lab on wheels featuring SimMan® and SimBaby®. The lab, which features realistic emergency room and ambulance settings is built within a 45-foot coach and will take a realistic emergency medicine feel to physicians, nurses, and paramedics/EMT’s in rural parts of Florida.

This “Mobile Simulation Lab” will be targeted to the rural emergency medicine providers in the State of Florida. There are 33 counties in Florida deemed “rural” with more than one million residents of those counties. This educational tool is an essential part of getting those in the profession hands-on training in the ever evolving field of emergency medicine.

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The “Mobile Simulation Lab” is critical because advanced training for those providing emergency healthcare is typically limited due to a lack in budgets available time for participants.

The “Mobile Simulation Lab” will offer teams, as well as individuals with an interactive training approach with tactile simulation because of the realistic patient that engages participants in making appropriate decisions, taking timely actions, and preparing them for the unexpected. Video equipment and other monitoring systems are included in the lab so student and staff performances can be recorded and assessed at the end of simulations. The instructor can control simulations through a computer or by remote control.

Featured in the “Mobile Simulation Lab” is SimMan® and SimBaby®, both of which are realistic, anatomically accurate mannequins equipped with a number of features, including a realistic airway system; an intravenous arm; physiologically correct carotid, femoral, brachial and radial pulses; and more than 2,500 cardiac rhythm variants, to allow for a variety of realistic patient care scenarios. SimMan® can produce spontaneous breathing, heart and lung sounds, as well as coughing, moaning and various voice sounds.

The “Mobile Simulation Lab” and staff will promote patient safety and quality emergency response by providing health care professionals with first-hand simulation training experience designed to underscore the need to bridge the gap between traditional didactic training methods and actual procedures on patients.

The “Mobile Simulation Lab” is made possible in part by a grant from the State of Florida. Additional partnerships are being garnered for continuation of the program.

The Emergency Medicine Learning & Resource Center (EMLRC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and advancing emergency medicine, disaster management, prehospital emergency care and public health through the provision of educational and research programs.
 
For further information contact:
John Todaro, BA, REMT-P, RN, NCEE
Emergency Medicine Learning & Resource Center
3717 South Conway Road
Orlando, FL 32812-7607
Phone: 800-766-6335 x27
Email: jtodaro@emlrc.org
Internet: www.emlrc.org

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