Simulation Center

The Simulation Center at Dell Children’s Medical Center seeks to improve patient safety by providing advanced training opportunities. Our specially trained simulation staff teach healthcare professionals how to respond to high-risk pediatric scenarios in realistic simulated environments. Our team at the Simulation Center is also able to identify opportunities for improvement in healthcare communication and operational systems. Our goal is to improve teamwork, interdisciplinary collaboration and clinical competency within many allied health and medical disciplines. We provide group learning opportunities to improve the delivery of patient care to pediatric patients in Central Texas. The center also provides interdisciplinary simulation-based learning for medical students and physicians in training at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin. 

Immersive simulations for many pediatric specialties

The Simulation Center is a partnership between UT Austin Dell Medical School and Dell Children’s Medical Center. Our goal is to help improve the delivery of care to patients through innovative and immersive simulations. These simulations are designed to optimize individual and team performance during high-risk situations. Simulations are available in these specialty areas:

• General pediatrics
• Pediatric cardiology
• Pediatric critical care
• Pediatric emergency care
• Routine and high-risk obstetric care
• Neonatology
• Quality and safety
• Transport medicine

Education and training to improve teamwork

Advanced technology is used to create realistic situations in different healthcare environments, including outpatient clinics, emergency departments, intensive care rooms, operating rooms, trauma suites, medical transport, local school districts and EMS services. 

Our training rooms are large enough to simulate full resuscitation events and are equipped with infant and adult full-body, high-technology manikins. The training rooms also accommodate mobile equipment, such as crash carts, ventilators, intubation scopes and more. Our observation control rooms are equipped with two-way audio communication, and technology that provides video-assisted debriefing. 

The simulation center has specially trained task trainers that provide hands-on skills and help healthcare providers gain expertise in:

• Arterial line placement
• Bag-mask ventilation
• Central line placement
• Chest tube placement
• Endotracheal intubation
• Intraosseous line placement
• IV placement
• Lumbar puncture
• Point-of-care ultrasound use
• Sterile technique

Simulations available at off-site locations

Outside of the stimulation center, our facilitators provide other learning opportunities, including: 

In situ simulations (simulated scenarios in real clinical environments) – facilitators go to clinical practice environments in the greater Austin area and deliver simulation-based learning.

Roll-play with standardized patients – standardized patients are trained to portray the roles of patients and family members. This method focuses on developing communication skills during history gathering and physical examination.

Ultrasound virtual reality simulations – facilitators provide virtual reality point-of-care simulations to practice image recognition, transducer placement and scenario integration.

Research conferences and events

Our Simulation Center is a destination for facilitator training, simulation research, and related medical education events, such as:

• Journal clubs, meet quarterly
• Participation in research to improve simulation training techniques
• Research conferences
• Simulation facilitator course to help facilitators develop simulation curricula and training scenarios. 
• Other Dell Children’s collaborative pediatric research meetings

Simulation events for community health providers

At the Simulation Center, our community outreach facilitator provides simulation opportunities to pediatric healthcare professionals in Central Texas, such as EMS and medical transport, emergency departments, and community-health clinics. For more information, click here.