Emergency Medicine Simulation
Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect — Vince Lombardi
This is the cornerstone for the Department of Emergency Medicine Residency simulation teaching philosophy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS). Simulation education is a bridge between classroom learning and real-life clinical experience.
The Simulation Teaching and Research Center (STAR) has created ‘perfect practice’ simulation environments for our emergency medicine residents for over a decade. Simulation education has been most effectively incorporated into emergency medicine curricula through the use of time-proven concepts which start with defining the targeted learners, assessing their general and specific educational needs, defining learning objectives, and selecting the best educational strategy for achieving each simulation in Emergency Medicine.
It is the education philosophy shared by the medical education team for the Emergency Medicine Residency. We teach with the utmost respect for our learners, in an intense environment that often challenges the boundaries of the traditional learning experience. Our learners are fully engaged in their simulation experiences and constantly challenged intellectually – a balance which can be achieved only in a small group environment. Our debriefings are extensive covering critical thinking and application of knowledge for our adult learners. The advanced technology used to operate many current simulators can erroneously become the focus of efforts to create a simulation-based curriculum. At ISMMS, our technology is only a tool to allow students to suspend disbelief. We do not emphasis the technological aspects of simulation, but rather place great value in the dissection of critical thinking and the decision making process.
It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem — Gilbert K. Chesterton, English author and mystery novelist
Using an experiential model, residents are guided to find those problems and begin advancing their medical education experience. Constant feedback from our learners is requested and taken into consideration for future sessions and frequent educational needs assessments for the residency program.
Simulation education has been most effectively integrated in the area of emergency medicine curricula. Learn more about the Emergency Medicine Resident Simulation curriculum
The STAR Center Fellowship in medical simulation at ISMMS will be a one-year experience, while the teaching will sustain a lifetime. We have created a unique opportunity for experiential medical educators to facilitate and foster the best learning environment in order to promote team work, quality education and drive patient safety in our Emergency Department.
The goal of the fellowship is to prepare our participants to enter the next phase of his or her academic career at a leadership level in medical simulation.