If you are not careful removing an organ, the patients' nose lights up. At Wake Forest they have taken this concept to new heights. Medical students work on what you might call a virtual patient at Baptist Hospital. It has a heartbeat and blood pressure and it can breath. Plus it reacts to medicine.
Students treat whatever condition is programmed in.
It is all done inside a makeshift emergency room. Doctors at the school hope that this unique training prepares doctors to be better than ever. A real doctor watches from a control room while each move is videotaped Each scenario begins with a debriefing where students get vitals on the arriving patient. He said the fact that the students work alone forces them to think under pressure and they are not going to get that experience anywhere else because a patient's life may be at stake. Olympio says this realistic lab works best for students because instead of interviewing early, to save an actual patient, they can sit back and gain the experience they need thinking under pressure.