Role of Hospitals: Eisenhower Health

At Eisenhower Hospital in Rancho Mirage, Calif., medical trainees are using simulator mannequins that can imitate a wide range of human behavior.

The mannequins are part of Eisenhower’s new high-tech simulation laboratory, the John Stauffer Center for Innovation in Learning. The center — which has been open for monthly simulations with emergency medicine residents for six months and opens to hospital staff by late April or early May — will support advanced training and education opportunities for graduate students and health care workers.

The training center has three fully equipped rooms that can be changed depending on which scenario staff wants to simulate, ranging from ICU to medical/surgical and emergency rooms, with one room dedicated to obstetrics and gynecology/neonatal intensive care. The mannequins can be programmed to cry, talk, simulate heart tones, lung and bowel sounds, be in labor and even give birth. Medical staff work with the models to practice an array of techniques, like intubation and ventilation, medication administration and other emergency scenarios.

Learn more about the center and its many educational resources from this Desert Sun article.