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Clinical Simulation Lab

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The Clinical Simulation Lab – a collaboration between Fletcher Allen and the University of Vermont’s College of Medicine and College of Nursing and Health Sciences – is an interdisciplinary, state-of-the-art “virtual hospital” that allows medical and nursing students, physical therapy students, medical residents, physicians and nurses, community EMTs and Vermont National Guard members to practice clinical procedures in a safe learning environment.

In the Clinical Simulation Lab, trainees can “practice” on mannequins whose complex circuitry causes them to react as if they were human.

The 9000-square-foot facility is equipped with a number of features, including:

  • Six inpatient hospital rooms, each equipped with video cameras for recording and communication
  • A multi-purpose room that can function as a simulated Operating Room, Emergency Room or Intensive Care Unit
  • A professional skills/task training lab with body-part models for learning how to perform such procedures as drawing blood, lumbar puncture, and insertion of central and IV lines
  • A virtual reality lab for practicing surgical skills

Standardized patients – community members who have been specially trained to accurately portray specific roles or conditions – are used in conjunction with simulation technologies in this facility.

Michael Ricci, MD, a Fletcher Allen vascular surgeon and UVM College of Medicine professor, is director of Clinical Simulation.  Funding for the project came from a gift of the late Thomas Sullivan, MD, who worked and taught at Fletcher Allen and UVM, and a $1.75 million grant secured by U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy. 

Visit the Clinical Simulation Lab page on the University of Vermont web site for more information.