The Faculty of medicine in Kosice announced next big investment in improvement of its teaching facilities and treating of patient. New simulators, models and other professional equipment have been purchased by the Institute of of Nursing at the Faculty of Medicine in Košice UPJŠ. These investments was made within a program the Knowledge Society. This is great news for medical students – they can now prepare without need to have a real patient at ambulance and can prepare for a variety of situations, where quick responses are more than needed.
Models have variety of different functions and sizes: there are not only “adult” figurines, but also figurines of children, newborns, infants and preschool children.
Models are also very authentic. For example those that simulate the retired people, are covered with a material similar to senile skin, which is in real life more resistant because it is less hydrated. Replicas of newborns help them to look after children, but they can also practice more complicated and complex procedures. They learn how to apply injected drugs using intratracheal (endotracheal) cannula or infusion into the marrow cavity of long bones on models. All of this without need of a real patient.
In addition to complex models, torsos of human bodies are prepared for various procedures. “Let me talk about model of a buttock. Thanks to this model, we can easily evaluate whether the injected needle reached the proper depth, ie whether there was a proper administration of the active substance, or if the injection does not cause unwanted complications such as pricking blood vessels or nerves,” Lucia Dimunová, Head of the Department of Nursing Faculty of Medicine, UPJŠ is explaining. “If we talk about the model of counterfeits arms, it helps students to understand an artificial blood circulating how to properly remove the blood”, she adds.
One of the most popular simulator is model imitating sound of heart and breathing. This model is able to emulate the health statuses with which the physicians meet only very rarely. Students often use the interactive whiteboard to their active learners through various quizzes or tests.
Jozef Firment, head of the I. Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine and UPJŠ UNLP says that simulators, in addition to teaching support for students, also serve as training for doctors and fosters better collaboration with health personnel at hospitals. It is possible because the simulator are able to efficiently evaluate and consult health of the patient.
“Models are helping us with the mentoring of our staff on new equipment and procedures. In addition to that, models are useful for securing harmonization of procedures for all employee groups. They are truly invaluable and therefore I believe it will eventually increase and also help to our faculty at different stages of teaching, “he said in in at interview.
Lucia Dimunová agrees with him, according to her experiences, models are not only clearly more efficient and more attractive for teaching, but also facilitate the transition of students into practice.
In the future, the Medical Faculty UPJŠ is planning to improve its teaching methods with broaded use of simulators at other departments of the faculty, as well as build quality independent simulator center.
