Simulation learning occurs in a safe environment where skills are acquired without risk to an actual patient. In addition to training areas that look like hospital and medical exam rooms, the Center will house a furnished apartment where family caregivers will be trained in a home-like setting.

Apartment for Caregiver Education and Simulation Center

A generation ago, children with cerebral palsy or other special needs lived in institutions, separated from family and friends. Today, special needs children live with their families, and are supported by a community of healthcare professionals and non-traditional caregivers. Many of the caregivers, who include extended family members, babysitters, daycare workers and school personnel, have no formal health training and no knowledge of the requirements of a special needs child.

Palm Healthcare Pavilion is the home of the Center for Patient Safety, the first community-based center of its kind in the nation. Caregivers, students and health professionals will simulate medical problems using full-body, high tech mannequins. Pre-programmed computerized scenarios mimic "real-life" physiologic changes associated with medical conditions, diseases, trauma events, and drug interactions. In addition to high tech simulators, simulation training utilizes role-playing in which patient actors interact with healthcare professionals. Interactions are taped and reviewed with "students" to point out strengths and areas that need improvement.