The Benefit of Simulation Before Entering the Field

One of the greatest advantages you can have during your medical training is the opportunity to practice on simulation devices.

Simulation-based learning devices, also known as dummies, allow nursing and other health career students get a real feel for the procedures they might perform on human patients, and lets them become more prepared for delivering care in the future. Training programs, including the ones found at HCI, are discovering this huge advantage in simulation dummies, and the technology used to develop them is getting more sophisticated. Following are a few reasons why it’s important to take advantage of simulation practice in health career training.

See Treatment Responses and Reactions

After learning, studying and memorizing different kinds of available treatments and methods you might administer, you may feel like you can predict things like drug interactions or patients’ response to treatment based on symptoms, height, and weight. But in reality, it’s hard to predict what type of response a patient will have. In a scenario like this, a simulation dummy can prepare you for what to expect in both successful and unsuccessful treatment cases.

Practice Techniques and Learn Your Preferences

Plenty of things that you do physically can be described in a textbook or lecture, but they don’t always make sense to the part of your brain that oversees motor function until you put it into action. When it comes to using your hands to perform a test or administer a treatment, hands-on is typically the only way to get a real feel for a correct execution. Using a simulation dummy lets you practice applying the correct amount of pressure, and helps you get used to the feeling of procedures. Consider it a head start on building muscle memory you’ll use all throughout your career.