About Us
Our History
A collaborative effort of the UVM Larner College of Medicine, the UVM College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and The University of Vermont Medical Center, the Clinical Simulation Laboratory is a centralized hub that brings together many different groups and constituencies, with the ultimate goal of improving quality and safety of care. The "Sim Lab" opened in the Rowell Building in March 2011, at a cost of just over $4 million, supported by a generous gift from the late Thomas Sullivan, M.D., a UVM alumnus from Etna, N.H., along with a $1.75 million federal grant secured by U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy.
Message from the Director
The Clinical Simulation Laboratory serves as an institutional and community resource helping to ensure that patients receive the highest quality of care. Our programs focus on a wide range of clinical training including procedural skills, interprofessional team training and patient safety. Simulation is more than just procedure skills; it's about learning how to communicate and how to work effectively as a team. Using simulation we are able to provide an ideal learning environment where errors are transformed into powerful teaching tools. The benefit of simulation is that it allows deliberate practice of skills, a sense of realism and real-time problem solving together with supervised instruction in a low-risk setting. Simply stated; “when you put the patient first, you don’t first practice on the patient”. Ultimately our goal is to link educational programs into meaningful patient outcomes. We partner with faculty and students to provide the very best of clinical education to allow our users to provide the very best of clinical care.
Nicholas Koch, M.D.
Director of Clinical Simulation
Simulation Support
- Adult and child mannequin simulators: A wide range of full-body mannequin simulators demonstrate lifelike physical responses including respiratory distress, change in vital signs, and appropriate reaction to treatment and administered agents.
- Task trainers- Body-part simulator models used for task specific skill development.
- Standardized patients: High trained individuals who accurately portray a specific role or condition.
- Hybrid Simulations - Combine a Standardized Patient with a partial task trainer or full patient mannequin for unique simulated encounters.
- Simulation Software: The Clinical Simulation Laboratory utilizes Education Management Systems (EMS) Arcadia system: an integrated software and digital audio-video recording system that creates an optimal solution for teaching, training and evaluation for clinical simulation.