(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – A north suburban hospital is using a state-of-the art training center to help better prepare medical personnel and first responders for real-life situations.
The Hunter Family Simulation Center at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital uses a combination of virtual reality and training spaces that include in-patient rooms and a full-size operating room to create a unique learning experience.
"It is important for us to provide a place to practice what we do in patient care, specifically with a safe place to learn," Program Manager Andrew Arndt said.
To make the scenarios as real as possible, high-fidelity mannequins are used in the simulations, he said.
"You can hear lung sounds and heart tones, you see rise and fall in their chest. The pupils react to light. We have pulses. We can start IVs on the mannequins, and then all the vital signs are streamed on the real hardware we have in the hospital."
Arndt says the goal is to make hospital personnel and first responders more comfortable with what they might encounter in the real world and more confident in how to react.
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