Medical, Nursing Students Train Side by Side
Students at the University of Rochester practice
working with patients with a special dummy that
breathes, responds to treatment, and talks back. Here,
medical students Cara Mia Chan and Gregg Chesney
work with the dummy along with former associate
professor Patty Coleman (foreground).
Communication is important-nowhere
more so than in medicine. Dangerous
and sometimes fatal medical errors occur
in America's hospitals due to lack of
communication among doctors, nurses,
and other medical staff.
The Schools of Medicine and
Dentistry and Nursing have developed
a commonsensical approach to closing
the communication gap-training
doctors and nurses side by side while
they are students instead of waiting until
their paths cross after graduation. Last
spring, medical and nursing students
began training together in the School
of Nursing's clinical simulation lab. The
lab allows students to hone their skills
on computerized patient mannequins displaying symptoms of ailments ranging
from heart attack to stroke—all the while
working together as a team.