GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — After three years of planning and construction, the Corewell Health Simulation Center has opened in downtown Grand Rapids and it's taking medical training to the next level.
The largest of its kind in the region, the 10,000-square-foot center houses high-fidelity simulators, a fully immersive virtual reality room, a bio skills lab and simulated operating and patient care rooms.
"We're training nurses, we're training surgical techs, we're training med students, residents, attending fellows, and we're looking at other ways to even broaden that out to the community and doing other outreach," said Eryn Hart, Corewell Health's medical director for simulation.
It gives medical residents the chance to train with cutting-edge technology on mannequins before graduating onto human patients. The virtual reality room has exercises that allow trainees to prep for any situation that may present itself.
"If you make a mistake, you're making a mistake or learning again on a mannequin, not on a real human being. So, it also gives them multiple times that maybe emergencies they wouldn't see at high frequency. And so if there is something that they really want to delve in to, we can do multiple repetitions," Hart added.
"It's a little bit unique and one of the largest hospital-based simulation centers in the area," said Director of Medical Simulation Pam Jager. "So, we really can flex the space and set up whatever type of teaching for whatever group that we need to do. We spent so much time planning for it and to have it come to fruition, and we're actually using it and receiving, you know, the great feedback that we have been has just been... it's been really an awesome feeling."
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