CHCS - Perspectives Summer/Fall 2017

College of Health Care Sciences 41 Cutting-Edge Apollo Simulators Improve Physical Diagnosis Skills By Charlene Couillard, M.P.A.S., PA-C, Assistant Professor IN JANUARY, the Fort Myers Physician Assistant Program received two new Apollo patient simulators. Kyrus Patch, D.H.Sc. , program director and assistant professor, appropriately named them Buzz and Neil. The program’s old simulated (SIM) patients, formerly called METImen, had experienced many deaths at the school and had finally taken their last breaths. The new Apollo simulators allow students the hands-on ex- perience of caring for a critically ill patient. The simulators also mimic signs and symptoms of disease and can even decom- pensate at times. The Apollo simulators help students practice their critical-thinking skills without putting a real patient’s life at risk. While the preparation and execution of simulation requires many hours and many faculty members to run, students find they get the most reward out of them. During their simulation exercises in previous years, the stu- dents were graded to assess knowledge of evaluation and management. During a recent seminar at the NSU Health Professions Educational Research Symposium, however, faculty members Nancy Cornett, M.S.B.S., PA-C, assistant professor, and Sylwia Bareja, M.M.S., PA-C, academic director and assistant professor, discovered other programs were using the simulators as a formative experience rather than a summative one. The Fort Myers program has since adopted this approach, enhancing the learning for students and creating less intimidation as well. First-year student Sylvia Phommalinh described the SIM experience as the “next best thing to having a real patient” as it “recreates the same environmental stress we will encounter as practitioners.” Although the simulation experience is not intended to cause stress, some students have not had this type of patient exposure in the critical care setting, so it is an exciting way to ease the students into the challenges of emergency medicine. Student feedback is always extremely positive during SIM days. David Scott commented that the simulations “are the most realistic experience we’ve had since we have been here.” According to Alex Reynolds, “The simulations help us to connect the dots.” Logan Stephens also values the experience because it “helps us learn to work as a team during the decision-making process,” she said. With the new simulators up and running smoothly, the faculty hopes to use them nearly every week. PA student David Merkle remarked that the knowledge these simulations provide “is worth an entire week of lectures. When you consider the amount of information the first-year students have to master, that is quite a compliment.” ● From left: Physician assistant students David Merkle, Alex Reynolds, and Brittany Roberts examine the Neil Apollo simulator during a recent SIM exercise.