TAMPA, Fla. – Medical mistakes kill 98,000 people each year in the United States. One woman in Tampa, Florida is trying to change the way doctors and nurses are trained so errors are less likely.
In one room there's a newborn baby being resuscitated. Down the hall a new nurse learning the ropes. And downstairs, there is an injured soldier in the hybrid operating room, but none of these scenarios are real. You're getting a peek inside of a pretend hospital with a big purpose.
Recommended Videos
"We're on the cutting edge in terms of a huge shift in the educational paradigm," said The CEO of USF CAMLS, Deborah Sutherland.
Sutherland is the brains behind the University of South Florida Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation. She says it's a one of a kind, one stop shop for medical professionals.
"We can truly train on every type of new procedure that comes out," Sutherland said.
"She really stuck to her guns on the ideas," said Jackie Melton, CAMLS Education Specialist.
Sutherland says it's unique because all of the hi-tech training rooms are under one roof.
"We have had visitors from over 60 countries, 4,300 visitors last year," said Sutherland.
She created this hi-tech institute because she saw a dire need for training changes. She says there are too many medical mistakes so she thinks the apprenticeship style of learning should be replaced with a competency based model.
"Where we can assure performance and measure that performance against predetermined standards," Sutherland explained.
Registered nurse Camille Shine just finished her two week training.
"This is the closest you can get to being in a patient's hospital room," she said.
Now Sutherland is hoping this new dose of training will be just what the nurses and doctors ordered.
Pharmacists and physical therapists can also train at CAMLS. Along with continuing education, CAMLS is also used by the medical device industry for preclinical testing of new products.
The Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation
The Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation or CAMLS is a training center that hopes to help the future of healthcare and become more of a standard. CAMLS is located in Tampa, Florida, and is the largest of its kind in the world. It uses teamwork as its approach to heighten the standards of healthcare. The building is 3 stories and over 90,000 square feet. Inside there is a large variety of medical simulations for surgeons and clinical teams. These programs not only are safe and useful for practice but they also provide measurable results.
CAMLS is broken down into a few different centers. The first is the Surgical & Intervention Training Center which uses brand new technology so that surgeons and residents can practice their skills through medical simulation. The Education Center is where professionals learn to educate the public about healthcare through classrooms. The Virtual Patient Care Center is used to advance the abilities of healthcare professionals through simulated and virtual healthcare situations. The Tampa Bay Research & Innovation Center is where engineers and health care professionals can go to brainstorm, progress, and experiment with new medical devices. Finally, the Center for Advancement of Minimally-Invasive Pelvic Surgery is a center that is specifically for advancing knowledge as well as training for Gynecologic surgery. These 5 centers all are in one facility and hope to stop the thousands of deaths that occur every year from medical mistakes. The cost varies on the length of training. Courses range from $150 for half days to $1,600 for more intensive training.
Deborah Sutherland, PhD was responsible for the opening of The Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation in 2012 and remains the CEO. She also is the Associate Vice President at USF Health and the Associate Dean of Morsani College of Medicine. She wants to continue to spread throughout Florida the appropriate guidance and practice do that all healthcare professionals are prepared once they enter the real world.
(Source: http://www.camls-us.org/about-camls/)