“Sims” may have started with a computer family living the life you programmed for them, but it has since spread far and wide as a training concept. You may have seen medical simulation training labs on “Grey’s Anatomy” where the television doctors train by using models for surgery.

Now, imagine that you’re a real doctor racing to save a dying baby. The infant is having difficulty breathing; bells and alarms are going off; and you may have to intubate. Seconds tick off as the child’s condition deteriorates, and the stress level is high.

Medical personnel can experience that sense of urgency using computer-controlled, interactive, life-size mannequins that simulate medical emergencies and function in real-time. That’s the beauty of the state-of-the-art high-fidelity simulators (sims) available at Children’s Medical Center.

The sim lab is the only one of its kind in North Texas for a pediatric hospital, making it just one more way Children’s provides unmatched expertise in pediatric healthcare.

Highly realistic, mobile sim baby, sim man and the pedi sim are the mainstays of the high-tech simulation center. The 3,000-square-foot simulation lab houses two team training rooms that recreate Intensive Care Unit and inpatient settings. The rooms, which have a separate control center, are equipped with the sims hooked up to computers, medical monitors and audiovisual equipment so the scenarios can be played back for training purposes. The center features computer stations with emergency scenarios programmed in, as well as virtual IV trainers.

In addition to the basic life support equipment, there are skill stations with task training simulators for IV starts, chest tubes and other medical procedures, as well as classrooms for debriefings after computer simulations.

The center also manages three Basic Life Support (BLS) mannequins so medical personnel can train, certify or re-certify in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

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