The University of Medical Science, situated in Ondo town, Ondo State, has initiated simulation courses in clinical medicine, specifically designed for its medical students.
The institution emphasized that simulation training in medical education serves multiple purposes, including acquiring and practising skills, identifying and mitigating errors, and providing a platform for formative assessment.
During the opening ceremony on Friday, Professor Adesegun Fatusi, the Vice-Chancellor of the institution, highlighted the significance of the training in the context of clinical simulation, emphasizing its essentiality in the 21st century
.The Vice-Chancellor stated that this development is part of the university’s endeavours to enhance training and enhance the competence and skills of its students.
He said: “You won’t see anywhere in the developed country, where you train doctors or nurses without a technical simulation approach to it. Nobody trains a pilot with flying a plane by trying it, a pilot is being trained to stimulation, and that’s how we train doctors and nurses. In the 21st century, we need to give them the opportunity to clinical simulation, so that they can develop their skills, develop their competence, develop their capacity before ever meeting patients and that’s one of the things we are doing in UNIMED.
“The importance is that it’s going to strengthen the quality of our training before any of our students goes to the world. They have been very competent, they won’t go to the world and start to traumatize patients. We are not just doing this for UNIMED, we are developing standard training that any Nigerian university or any Nigerian hospital can come and benefit from. We are developing a formal certificate in clinical simulation as part of helping the Nigeria educational aspect.”
“Regarding the course, it is part of a larger endeavour that involves several components. These components include the development of a center and the procurement of materials and equipment. When considering all of these aspects together, the investment made exceeds a hundred million naira, which has contributed to the current state of progress. As part of our efforts to enhance training, we have established a clinical solution center. Funding for this initiative was obtained through the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Programme, which offers annual fellowships to African institutions seeking support for projects that significantly advance education.
Speaking about the programme, Professor Kayode Osungbade, the Director of the Center for Health Profession and Medical Education, highlighted that it aligned with the global direction of medical education.
“In our own time, we were exposed to traditional teaching, but over the years, medical simulations have brought some innovations to medical education. In other words, bringing students to the laboratory to practise medical medicines with mannequins through stimulations. Using mannequins, some items can mimic. What we are here to do is to integrate what we are doing now into the curriculum of UNIMED.”
According to Professor Osungbade, the training was not limited to students alone as it also encompassed faculty members, clinical lecturers, and professionals from various medical disciplines such as medical sciences, dentistry, nursing, and physiotherapy.
“Beyond that, we plan to involve non-physicians in the CPR training at the latter part of the training. We plan to bring people from the society, physicians, clinicians and other paramedics from outside the university”, he said.
In his address, Professor Olugbenga Akingbola, the resource person and Carnegie Fellow, emphasized the importance of simulation training in helping trainees, including medical students, nurses, and resident doctors acquire critical life-saving skills.
Prof. Akingbola highlighted that through simulation, these individuals have the opportunity to practise these skills extensively, until they achieve mastery.
He further emphasized that medical education is akin to an apprenticeship, where hands-on experience and continuous practice are crucial for proficiency.“When we train, we didn’t have a simulation center which means that everything that we knew how to do, we learnt it on patients, you will see that in that scenario, any form of error can be catastrophic.
“So, in many ways, stimulation is becoming a very important tool for medical education”, he said, adding “The other aspect is communication and teamwork which often is lacking in formal medical training. The opportunity to learn communication skills as a member of the health care team can be done in a stimulating environment. So, in short, the simulation center provides the platform for skill training practice, error identification and mitigation and also, for effective communication among the medical personnel,” the don explained.
