Science Writers 2023 attendees were treated to a hands-on experience during a tour of the Center for Advancing Professional Excellence (CAPE) at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.
The state-of-the-art simulation facility annually trains 14,000 student learners and health professionals to become more effective communicators and collaborators in both clinical patient settings and demanding team-care environments.
A couple Science Writers 2023 participants triage a severely injured “patient” during their tour of the CAPE facility at CU Anschutz.
Guided by Curriculum Manager Tanya Russell, PhD, and Simulation Education Project Coordinator Devra Keyes, BS, MS, tour participants were put through the paces, playing the roles of healthcare professionals meeting with patients – portrayed by professional “standardized patient” actors, as well as by high-fidelity mannequins programmed to present with specific conditions.
The participants were encouraged to dialogue and diagnose the patients’ conditions while honing their own communication skills through an emphasis on empathy and active listening.
Attendees threw themselves into the training simulations with gusto, and at times, their lack of healthcare training brought moments of levity to intense situations. During an emergency scenario in which a male motorcyclist had been hit by a car and presented with a collapsed lung, broken femur and rapidly plummeting vital signs, culminating in a seizure mid-exam, one participant asked, “Is there a button we can press to call a real doctor?”
