- An investment of around one million Euros has led to the construction of eight complete simulation units which can become over 50 different scenarios
- The centre can offer clinical and business simulations and test innovation and research processes
In October 2019, UVic-UCC's Manresa campus opened a thousand square metres of space entirely devoted to simulation, in the CISARC, its completely refurbished International Centre for Clinical Simulation and High Performance. The expansion of this facility located on the second floor of the Clínica Universitària building reaffirms the commitment that the Bages University Foundation made to simulation as a training methodology some years ago. It also consolidates its role as a pioneering centre in this field in Catalonia.
An investment of almost one million Euros has led to eight complete simulation units being constructed and fitted out. Each one consists of a scenario area, another direct observation and debriefing area, and a third technical control area. The eight units can operate simultaneously and independently of each other, and can accommodate up to 120 participants at a time. They are equipped to become over 50 different scenarios depending on the aim of the activity. A multidisciplinary team of fifteen professionals (including psychologists, teachers, facilitators and experts in the field of health, business and education with specific training in the use of simulation for education purposes) provides the knowledge required to place this facility’s methodological content at the highest level.
«A complete simulation unit consists of a scenario area, another direct observation and debriefing area and a technical control area»
The Manresa campus has had a long-standing commitment to simulation as a training methodology, and this has taken the form of various initiatives in recent years: the use of simulation in all areas of training (on university bachelor's degree courses, in postgraduate training, in vocational training courses on the Professional Campus and in specialist training for professionals), in the University Master's Degree in Simulation Methodology, in the creation of the Chair of Simulation and Patient Safety and in establishing the Research Group on Educational Innovation, Simulation and Patient Safety (GRINDoSSeP).The CISARC was founded in 2015 as a facility occupying 300 square metres of the Clínica Universitària building. In just four years, its work increased to the extent that its capacity became insufficient to meet the demand - both internally from the university, and externally from companies and health centres. The refurbishment has added extra space and provided more technologically sophisticated equipment, more capacity for participants, and increased the versatility of the scenarios, enhancing the reflective aspect of the simulation, and laying the foundations for research and transfer activities linked to this methodology.
Clinical simulation and business simulation
The CISARC was established as a clinical simulation and high performance centre, and its work initially focused on training healthcare professionals, and on patient safety in particular, as well as on designing and applying cases for testing action protocols for healthcare organisations.
The refurbishment means it has been able to expand in this area. As a result, any of the scenarios in which the health professionals training there may be involved are recreated: these range from an outpatient clinic to an admission, a booth in an emergency ward, a hospital room, a resuscitation unit, an operating theatre and a home, among many others. Simulated experience in the healthcare field substantially improves health professionals' skills and judgement when responding to emergency and/or unforeseen situations, providing more effective and safer care for patients.
«The scenarios are versatile, and can include the entire range of situations that a health professional or others in the business and company environment may have to deal with»
However, the expansion of the CISARC facilities is also a result of its objective of consolidating its work in areas other than the clinical sphere. The changes have enhanced the centre's potential in the field of business simulation. The opportunity to recreate scenarios and situations typical of the environment in which a company and business works opens up another area where this methodology can be used.
The CISARC can now offer companies tailor-made training in relational skills including leadership, decision-making, conflict management and teamwork based on simulated situations designed to provide meaningful and transformational learning experiences for the participants.
Simulation - a tool for teaching innovation
Simulation is an educational tool for learning and evaluation based on reflective-experiential practice, which involves a profound transformation in how the training of professionals is understood. Simulation spaces recreate a situation that is safe but which is very similar to a real one, which means that it is a tool with a vast potential for individuals' professional development and the consolidation and cohesion of work teams.
A successful combination of methodological knowledge and technology are the tools that the CISARC can offer individuals, teams, companies and institutions to help them improve and innovate in their processes and/or products or services. By recreating complex scenarios, it can place various types of professionals in situations that are very similar to those that they have to deal with in their everyday lives. This means that errors and/or shortcomings can be identified, learned from and corrected.
«The CISARC combines methodological knowledge and technology to leverage the full potential of simulation as a learning tool»
How professionals respond as individuals to a situation and to the other members of their team are recorded for subsequent analysis and evaluation. The pedagogical debriefing methodology improves the learning experience, based on an analysis of one's own performance and the performance of one's classmates.
Simulation and research
Research is another area being developed at the CISARC, as it provides an opportunity to test the efficiency and safety of new ways of working in multidisciplinary teams (in the health sector, business and education). These tests are particularly important when new technology, new working systems and new equipment and/or resources are introduced.
The facilities and expertise of the CISARC are also available to innovation and product development departments for product tests. These tests can evaluate the impact, the degree of response, and adaptation to organisations' needs, etc. The CISARC has also established collaborative relationships with various companies to carry out applied research projects and to undertake knowledge transfer projects.