Medical students need to learn how to perform procedures. Want to be the frantic, shaky handed rookie’s version of the board game “Operation”? Now you don’t have to be. There’s a new guinea pig in town, well, manikin, that will take your place in the medical gown. It’s SimMan, super life-like and ready for medical treatment at your beck and call.
SimMan is pretty intriguing. I’m not a medical expert nor do I ever plan on venturing into that career path, but you’ve got to give it to science’s alarming advancement.
Okay, so a manikin doesn’t sound too impressive, but I meant it when I said lifelike. These fake people respond to your questions, show real human-like symptoms and could even give birth. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather a med student learn how to deliver a baby on a dummy instead of me any day.
If technology has made such advancements, then we should take advantage. After checking out SimMan’s Web site, I was impressed and fully on board. There are certain procedures students can experience before out in a hospital on residency.
These far from dumb dummies can simulate life threatening problems. It’s difficult for someone studying medicine to get hands-on experience for particular medical scenarios in a classroom.
That’s where SimMan comes in. “SimMan provides simulation-based education to challenge and test students clinical and decision-making skills during realistic patient care scenarios, according to Laerdal.com, the Web site of the company producing it.
Not just from a patient standpoint is it a good idea, but I could bet many studying medicine would appreciate practicing care giving to these practically human patients.
It’s difficult to go up to a real, living, breathing person with confidence and a self-assured demeanor when you’ve never done it before. SimMan is a great practice. They can make their mistakes and feel comfortable without it having an effect on a human life.
Real patient’s can come when students further along in their studies. SimMan was created to prepare students. It gives something a human can’t, a medical crisis on command.
