High school students in North Bay California spent their time last summer learning to save lives! For nearly 35 students their summer vacation last August was spent learning suturing, CPR techniques and shadowing nursing professionals. North Bay Nurse Week Summer Camp was a great opportunity for students to see what a nurse really does, and if that career path is something they are interested in pursuing.

If you have ever tried to learn CPR or any other emergency rescue technique, you know first-hand the value of real-life experience. It is with that in mind that DiaMedical USA can now provide a full sized ambulance simulator specifically designed to fit within a classroom! Though there are countless reasons for a school to invest in a simulated ambulance, here are the top nine reasons that schools and training facilities purchase a complete ambulance simulator:

Over the past few decades society has learned a great deal about medical education. We now know for certain that experience is everything, especially when learning infusion, dialysis, fluid resuscitation and other medical procedures involving bodily fluids. Now it is true that charts, graphs, and diagrams are useful tools, but a student does not know how to perform a medical procedure until they have tried it enough times to master it. In the recent past, teaching blood transfusion has proven a difficult hurdle to overcome for some educational institutions. By using simulated blood bags, facilities don't have to worry about the bags expiring, a shortage or high costs. This has prompted many hospitals, universities, colleges, EMS programs and other medical training institutions to take advantage of these benefits by solely relying on simulated transfusion products when training students. DiaMedical USA and SimLabSolutions have joined this movement and are now offering not only Simulated Blood Bags, but Simulated Plasma and Simulated Platelets.

Looking to take your medical simulation training to the next level? A new app, compatible with all Android devices, has just been released by SynDaver, and adds another component to simulation scenarios. The app is an EKG simulator that can run with any medical training manikin.

When the idea of healthcare simulation emerged, many simulation centers began to develop in nursing schools and hospitals. Educators were finally able to create real-life medical scenarios for their students, and therefore put large amounts of money into building these spaces for them. It was definitely a new and exciting concept for students, but there was still a gap in this new concept of simulation. Many educators started to hear students question the “reality” of certain simulations. Teachers would hear students say the simulations “don’t feel real” and that they “would have performed the procedure differently with a real patient.” It came down to the fact that these simulations were not true sensory experiences for them, and because of that, new products, such as Moulage, are now being created. Moulage is the art of applying mock injuries for the purpose of training. Moulage products range from wounds, to amputations, to simulated blood and odors, which allow students to actually see, feel, and smell conditions as they truly would be in nursing, EMS, and military settings. Moulage is definitely bringing realities to simulation for students and we hope to see many more products like Moulage surface in order to continue to bridge the gap.

According to the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, “Simulation in healthcare education is a bridge between classroom learning and real life clinical experiences.” This kind of experience is incredibly valuable for future medical professionals and their patients. Simulation education is increasingly important in the study of healthcare, and it’s not hard to understand why nursing schools, hospitals and training facilities across the world are opening or expanding simulation labs. Manikins, moulage, and practice medications are the tools of choice for training the next generation of healthcare providers, and as the quality of these tools increases, the quality of the education increases as well.