Touro University’s clinical simulation center is the first in Nevada to achieve full accreditation from the prestigious Society for Simulation in Healthcare.
It’s another critical step in helping prepare students at Nevada’s largest medical school to grow the local health care industry. Nevada’s health system ranks 41st nationally, according to a 2024 report from nonpartisan organization the Commonwealth Fund.
“It truly says that you’re meeting, yes, of course, not just the bare minimum standards, but hopefully going above and beyond those to really ensure that your students are getting everything they need for their education to achieve mastery for them,” said Casey Maurice, director of the Michael Tang Regional Center for Clinical Simulation.
The center, one of two medical simulation centers in Nevada, supports the university’s College of Osteopathic Medicine and College of Health and Human Services by providing high-tech learning opportunities such as high-fidelity manikins that can sweat, cry and even react to doses of medication.
Students can also gain experience through structured clinical experiences, where part-time employees at the simulation center will memorize scripts and act like they have specific ailments. The students then check symptoms, diagnose the “patient” or help them with treatment as if it were a typical doctor’s office or physical therapy visit.
The simulation center in recent years has added mixed-reality headsets that work with its labor and delivery manikin so students can “see inside of” the laboring mom during the delivery process.
Maurice said this simulation center serves as “kind of a bridge from the classroom” to a health care setting, where many patients may experience anxiety. Practicing these sorts of skills in school can help students be more confident going into the workforce and know how to perform tasks safely, she explained.
Two years ago, the simulation center achieved provisional accreditation from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH), which promotes the use of simulation technology to “improve performance and reduce errors in patient care,” according to the organization’s website. Its membership includes physicians, nurses, researchers, educators and other health professionals from around the globe.
Maurice and her team began the accreditation process a few years before getting the provisional accreditation in 2022. They used feedback from the organization to implement new strategies before applying for full accreditation.
To meet the standards for accreditation, simulation centers must submit numerous documents to the Society for Simulation in Healthcare’s Board of Review showing they comply with the organization’s core and teaching standards. These documents include the center’s mission, learning activities and floor plans of educational spaces, among others. A site visit from the review board is also required.
Desiree Deangelo, an osteopathic medicine student, said the simulation center “has been an invaluable resource for my medical education” because practicing on the manikins “has helped me refine my diagnostic, procedural and communication skills without the pressure of real-life consequences.”
Some of her favorite learning experiences include watching a simulated birth, and repeatedly practicing cardiovascular life support, which helped her improve each time.
“After the end of each simulation, we discussed what went well, and what we could improve upon for each scenario,” Deangelo said. “The opportunity to receive feedback and reflect on my performance further ensures I am more capable for the real world on my rotations.”
Since earning accreditation, Touro University has received “lots of calls” from other simulation centers looking for advice, Maurice said. She sees this accreditation and these collaborations with outside agencies as a huge plus for Nevada.
“It’s awesome to know that it’s getting better for my family, my friends, my kids; that when I go and I see some of my providers in the hospital systems or the doctor’s offices, it’s a surreal feeling to see them and know, hey, they made it, they’re there, they’re doing this and the lives that they’re impacting from it,” Maurice said.
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This story originally appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.