VCOM 2023 Annual Report

The Academic Program (continued)

How do we teach VCOM students to safely treat patients? T eaching students to successfully diagnose illness and injury is a complex process. We do it through our early clinical experiences (ECEs) and through learning experiences in VCOM’s state-of-the-art Simulation and Technology Centers (Sim Centers). In 2003, VCOM-Virginia’s Sim Center was just one room. Today, each VCOM campus has a Sim Center that comprises four simulation rooms, several multipurpose rooms and leading technology, including intricate models and manikins. These tools allow students to practice dealing with cardiac and pulmonary emergencies, pediatric emergencies and births in a safe, low-risk environment under the watchful eye of our faculty members. Time spent in the Sim Center helps promote humanism and understanding while also helping to develop competency in a wide range of procedural skills. Students are also able to practice critical

decision-making, learning how to process a lot of information even during emergency situations. In fact, the manikins are often the first emergency patient encounters our students have. The manikin-based simulation program is a capstone to students’ first year at VCOM, where they complete simulations that allow them to apply what they have learned during the year. Similarly, students use the Sim Center manikins throughout their second year to reinforce the College’s curriculum. VCOM’s Sim Centers also host two courses: Clinical Procedural Skills and Competency in Clinical Skills. During Clinical Procedural Skills, first- and second-year students learn hands on skills like splinting, injections, suturing, IV insertions, catheterization and more. Competency in Clinical Skills is a simulation based course and helps students learn clinical skills, clinical reasoning and medical procedures. Clinical skills, professional development and medical procedures are major focuses of the class.

1,288 students participating in Sim Center experiences each year 142 Simulated Patients across all four VCOM campuses SIM CENTER STATISTICS 47 cases per year that each student is exposed to in our Sim Centers

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