Clinical Simulation Center
Development of the CDU Clinical Skills and Simulation Center
Charles Drew University College of Medicine is committed to developing and disseminating processes and tools that will facilitate the appropriate generation, learning, and application of medical knowledge, skills and attitudes to improve clinical competence.
The Sim Center was one of the country's first minority healthcare simulation centers. The mission is to provide an educationally rich environment for training healthcare professionals to practice safe, effective and compassionate clinical care. It is informed by the best practices of teaching and clinical practice and grounded in theory-based research. Integral to this mission, the Sim Center conducts research that extends our knowledge and practice of experiential learning and assessment by simulation.
The Sim Center at CDU put its first mannequin simulator into service in 2007. We have developed courses for medical students, physician assistant students, high school and elementary school students, have been conducting research on a spectrum of topics, and continue to initiate an array of healthcare simulation activities.
Important Milestones
2002
The Martin Luther King Hospital has mini-simulation programs in the Department of Anesthesia, Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, as well as the Nursing Education Program. The medical students and residents benefit from the each of the department’s simulation curriculum activities.
2006
Martin Luther King Hospital closure. The CDU faculty managed to continue teaching the medical students by conducting procedural skills session using the manikins placed in the Drew University mini-laboratory/ simulation rooms housed in the Cobb building.
2007
The College of Medicine developed three patient examination rooms, a mini-operating room/procedure room and conference room for simulation debriefing. In addition to medical students, the physician assistant students began to participate in simulation activities.
2008
Simulation Manager, Sylvia Merino, MBA, MPH was hired to help organize the Simulation Center.
2009
Director of Faculty Development, Laurie Richlin, PhD, began to develop the faculty and professional staff interested in teaching simulation by facilitating the Faculty and Professional Learning Community Using Simulation to Enhance Learning.“School for the Medical Arts” Project was started which is a simulation outreach program for elementary school and high school students. High School Project Prep Simulation was started July 2009 and Saturday Science Simulation began in December 2009.
2010
Charles Drew Simulation Center participated in the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare, January 2010 in Phoenix, Arizona. Peregrina L. Arciaga, MD presented a Work In Progress/WIP abstract poster “How a New, Small, Underfunded Simulation Center Engaged a Community of Practice to Design and Implement a Model That Assesses Student Learning Objectives”
