Pharmacy students at the University of Bath this week welcomed a new colleague to their faculty, who will hopefully stick around longer than the customary 4 years it takes to earn a degree.
The SimMan 3G, or simply “Simon” as he affectionately dubbed by the department, is a life-sized model that talks, breathes and reacts to medicines in the same way as a real human, giving students a chance to practice their diagnostic skills and put theory into practice.
“He’s amazingly life-like. He has a pulse, his pupils constrict when you shine a light in them and he also reacts to drugs in a similar way to a real person. If he has a reaction to a medicine, he might have a seizure, sweat or vomit,” Dr Denise Taylor, Senior Teaching Fellow in Clinical Pharmacy told the University Press Office, adding that he provided students with a chance to practice examination skills n a safe environment.
Simon’s arrival is part of a greater development program and comes soon after Vice-Chancellor Professor Glynis Breakwell opened a new state-of-the-art teaching suite which simulates a real pharmacy. Students are now able to put textbook theories into practice by being assigned a set of fictitious patients to diagnose, treat and nurse back to health in their very own “pharmacy”.
The new laboratory, which was financed by the ‘Wolfson Foundation’ and the University’s Alumni Fund, also includes six pharmacy consultation rooms, where students are filmed whilst role-playing encounters with patients. This gives students valuable feedback as to how well they communicate with patients.
According to the department, the SimMan 3G is widely used for training doctors in medical school, but the University of Bath is one of the first pharmacy departments to own one.
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