Simulation

The University of Calgary Department of Anesthesia simulation program provides simulation-based educational activities for staff anesthesiologists, residents and medical students at several sites across the city including the South Health Campus, the Foothills Medical Center, the Peter Lougheed Hospital, the Rockyview General Hospital and the Alberta Children’s Hospital. Discipline specific and inter-professional simulation activities with multi-disciplinary teams allow for various educational objectives to be targeted. Moreover, the simulation environment allows for the consolidation of various skill sets that are necessary for the practice of anesthesia.

Simulation activities occur in both high-fidelity simulation laboratories and in-situ settings. Importantly, we incorporate the whole spectrum of simulation activities including part-task trainers to meet the needs of our learners. Using the complete realm of simulation modalities we provide simulation-based activities for continuing medical education credits for staff anesthesiologists and various educational events for our trainees. Our residents have several formal simulation sessions throughout their training. These sessions including the Anesthesia Crisis Resource Management course this allows for practice of relative rare perioperative crises. Our trainees also participate in the Managing Emergencies in Pediatric Anesthesia course to review the management of rare emergencies in pediatric anesthesia. The Perioperative Crisis Resource Management course is an innovative course with the objective of simulating perioperative crises for the entire operative room team using the in-situ simulation modality. 

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the Canadian National Simulation task force is incorporating simulation-based milestone assessments to evaluate a trainees readiness for independent practice.  The University of Calgary’s Simulation program prepares our residents for these assessments and runs these nationally standardized assessments at our institution.