Senator Pia Cayetano and medical faculty from CNU check on the first response trauma mannequin in the simulation center at the VSMMC. | photo by Niña Mae Oliverio
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Medical students from a state university here will be given the opportunity to prepare themselves before they takeoff to the real-life scenarios after graduation.
This is because a new simulation center was inaugurated on Wednesday, April 2, at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).
The simulation center is for the Cebu Normal University Medical Center College students.
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It is the first state-of-the-art facility in Central Visayas equipped with simulators where medical students can have an experiential learning in various situations such as delivering a baby, conducting a quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation and surgical operations, and responding to real-life emergencies, among others.
The high-fidelity equipment and simulators are available in the nursery, intensive care unit, adult/pediatric ward, and emergency room.
Additionally, the simulators could copy how the human beings react whenever they are in pain or discomfort when brought to the hospital. They also show vital signs like of humans as they were programmed to it.
Medical experts from CNU walked through the equipment in the center and Dr. Joseph Brian Costiniano explained how the high-fidelity simulators (mannequins) work for learning.
One of the simulators that was set as an example was a maternal-fetal birthing simulator. It can simulate an actual delivery in a clinical scenario.
“Minsan kasi ang sinasabi natin, ‘Ay hala ang mga pasyente pinagpapraktisan lang.’ This is a controlled and safe environment for our students that they can actually practice and do actual childbirth,” Costiniano said.
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The medical students, Costiniano added, will be required to respond to a real-life situation inside the simulation lab while their teachers are at the other room, observing them.
“They’ll have to do everything that they can in order to control the situation. And then after the scenario, we’ll do a debriefing with the students and we’ll discuss what they did, what they did not do, what they need to improve, what they learned from the simulation,” he said.
Senator Pia Cayetano, who was present during the inauguration ceremony, said that the project was the product of the ‘Doktor Para sa Bayan’ a law she co-authored.
The principal author was former senate president, Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, who also attended in the event.
Cayetano said she was then the vice-chair of the Senate’s Committee on Finance, allowing her to check the budget allocations for health and education.
Approximately P80 million was allocated for the simulation center, said Dr. Ma. Socorro Manaloto, dean of CNU-VSMMC College of Medicine. The budget’s proposal was approved during a budget hearing called by the senators, she added.
With the new simulation center, future doctors will be able to prepare themselves before they get to handle actual patients.
Aside from Cayetano and Tito Sotto, also in attendance was Cebu Provincial Board Member Stanley Caminero, and other representatives from the academe. ///
Photo caption: Senator Pia Cayetano and medical faculty from CNU check on the first response trauma mannequin in the simulation center at the VSMMC. | photo by Niña Mae Oliverio