Growing your Sim Organization

There are a myriad of ways SIM can be incorporated into your medical school. In addition to running SIM cases in case-based meetings, other ways to use SIM to engage learners includes SIM competitions and skills labs.

Case-based SIM meetings are intended to augment your EMIG’s or SIM org’s student engagement by teaching differential diagnoses, work-up, and basic management of emergent presentations as well as teaching the fundamentals of trauma and medical resuscitation. Case meetings include a brief (15-20 minute) didactic session given by an upperclassman or resident and then two-three cases for teams which each including through debriefs that re-enforce the content covered in the didactic lecture.

SIM competitions are an exciting way to build engagement with the student body by allowing teams to compete against each other. Competitions are typically held bi-annually and allow teams to compete through four or five case presentations. Though logistically challenging, competitions make for incredible buy-in from org members.

Skills labs can take many shapes all with the goal of teaching a procedure. Skills labs are best run by residents or upperclassmen with procedural experience. Your org can build fundamental procedural competencies in students with skill meetings with varying levels of realism depending on what price-point your org may be able to afford. Some examples of skill labs include home-made task trainers (suturing, IV insertion, paracentesis), commercial task trainers (vaginal delivery, lumbar puncture, chest tube placement), and cadaveric models (intubation, joint-injection). Certain techniques can be practice on fellow students including splinting, IM injections, IV placement, basic first-aid, and ultrasound.

Ultrasound can be an incredible way to engage students. Teaching POCUS techniques such as RUQ ultrasound, echocardiography, and FAST exams are very engaging and can be truly beneficial for clinical rotations. See resources tab for POCUS resources.

Many medical schools have access to ultrasound machines, task trainers, and cadavers that may be used if you reach out to your school’s faculty.