Laboratory Interactive Clinical Simulations Using Anesthetized Dogs

Abstract

To improve student performance in the intensive care unit (ICU) we developed laboratory interactive clinical simulations using anesthetized dogs. By simulating various human critical care situations, cardiopulmonary diseases, or emergencies in a laboratory using standard ICU equipment, we create an instructional environment that stresses the clinical skills of the student, behavioral responses, and individual responsibility for surrogate patients maintained with life support systems. Direct student participation in these simulations provides the instructor with an index of student proficiency and awareness without risk to a human patient. Learning is further facilitated by one-on-one instruction, immediate reinforcement by the instructor, unlimited task repetition, and self-assessment against task analyses. Instrumentation techniques are presented that permit cardiopulmonary and cardiovascular data-collection, induction of hemorrhagic pulmonary edema, and therapeutic intervention with critical care modalities during the simulation. These instrumentation techniques may be further used to teach students laboratory research methodology.