Students can be permitted to take risks they simply wouldn't be allowed to take with real patients. The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., opened the center in September 1999. Located at Walter Reed Army Medical Center Annex at Forest Glen, just north of downtown Silver Spring, Md., the facility will train more than 500 medical students from all the services each year. The school's medical students are not the only ones trained at the center. Nurses, nurse practitioners, residents, fellows, and even faculty have made use of simulation center resources.
Students learning to be doctors rotate through various emergency medical scenarios at the center.
The student has to diagnose and prescribe treatment for the condition. Their skills are also tested in a mock operating room and a virtual reality lab. Katrina Walters said training on the computerized mannequin and other equipment, where mistakes don't threaten lives, will be valuable when diagnosing and treating real patients. The sophisticated teaching tools enable the staff to teach new procedures and ensure that students see all the procedures and all the anatomy that exists, Kaufmann said. Another major use of the center is the instruction of readiness skills and focused predeployment training for wartime, peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.