SIM-one Simulation Student Contest
Sean Duquette
Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, year 4
How has simulation transformed my learning?
I am a student at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College and the school's simulation lab was introduced during my first year of classes. This allowed me an opportunity to enhance my learning that was unavailable to the previous classes. Taking full advantage of this, I was able to gain additional practice, participate in scenarios I would not normally be able to, and become actively engaged in the school through research.
Prior to the simulation lab, there was only one way for students to refine their manual skills and that was to practice on each other. This was an issue as there would be a limit on how much practice students would be able to complete. Since chiropractic manipulations are complex motor skills, this limited practice would hinder a student's ability to increase their skills. This is where the simulation lab first enhanced my learning experience. Through the creation of human analog manikins there was now the opportunity to practice my chiropractic manipulations as much as I wanted. This in conjunction with force sensing tables allowed me to gain valuable repetitions as well as instant objective feedback. Since this type of practice was not available to previous classes, I feel my skills are further developed than most students at similar points in their education. This increased skill gave me more confidence and decreased anxiety moving into my practical placement. I feel this allowed me to focus on learning instead of worrying about my manual skills. Therefore simulation enhanced my overall learning in not only the simulation lab, but also eased the anxiety when moving into the clinical setting.
The second major component of the simulation lab at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College is the emergency scenario simulation. In my first, second and fourth years the school, a group of students were run through simulation involving an emergency and difficult situation. In the first year it was dealing with a patient experiencing an anxiety attack, the second was a patient having a diabetic coma, and in the fourth year it was a patient having a heart attack. These simulations were invaluable to my learning experience as it allowed me to physically experience something I only previously read in a book. Using the high-fidelitymanikins the simulation lab was able to create a situation that would be impossible to do with actors as the patients vitals would change to reflect the patient's condition. These experiences allowed for practicing our emergency skills in a safe environment. I feel this allowed me to practice the necessary skills for handling emergency care including practical skills, patient interaction, communication and how to manage other people. These are all skills I feel are necessary for future success and I feel much more prepared to deal with an emergency scenario the future.
The final part of how simulation transformed my learning experience was it allowed me to get more involved in the school as a whole. Previous to my time at CMCC, I was never particularly interested in helping out with school programs or research. However, after experiencing what an impact the simulation lab had on me, I wanted to get involved and help improve the sim lab anyway I could. This happened through first volunteering my time to help, Dr. Giuliano and Dr. Starmer, with different tasks that needed to be done. Eventually as I spent more time in the lab, they gave the opportunity to help them with some of the research that was taking place. This was a whole educational experience for me and opened doors I did not know were possible. The research that was completed including was the further development of manikins for students to practice their skills on and working to identify the improvements students had in handling emergency scenarios. These research projects were both presented at last year's SIM-ONE conference which I had the opportunity to attend. This last year, I was given even more opportunity to participate in the simulation lab and was given the opportunity to assist in running some of the labs at the school. Again without the simulation lab this is something I feel I would not have done in my educational experience. This time working in the simulation lab has encouraged me to continue with my education and pursue for opportunities. Entering CMCC, I would not have thought this was an option to me, however the simulation experiences has opened this opportunity to me.
Overall simulation has had a large impact in my education at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. I feel it has allowed me to improve my manual skills beyond the students before me who did not have access to it. Secondly, it has given me the chance to experience scenarios in a safe environment, which if I face in the future I feel like I be able to properly handle now. Finally it has changed my overall outlook on education, given me opportunities that I would never had had otherwise and encouraged me to pursue further education.