Immersive Clinical Simulation Labs

Each USAHS campus has its own Center for Innovative Clinical Practice (CICP). Our CICPs are immersive learning laboratories that simulate a variety of clinical spaces and home settings—down to the smallest details. You will get hands-on practice with real equipment and realistic clinical environments. The Centers are standardized across USAHS, so that each student has access to the same equipment and types of experiences.

Cutting-Edge Simulation Equipment

Every CICP features these state-of-the-art facilities:

• An inpatient ward with real hospital equipment and 8 to 16 hospital beds
• A complex simulation room with an advanced care hospital bed, which can be adapted for a variety of other clinical, home, and work settings
• A 30-seat observation and debriefing room, which also can be converted to a clinical or home setting
• Patient consulting/assessment rooms that simulate outpatient clinical office settings
• An activities of daily living (ADL) area with a fully operational kitchen, bedroom, dining area, closet, bathroom, and living space
• An ECA EF-X2 PRM driving simulator constructed from actual car parts, including a six-speed transmission and a force-feedback steering wheel
• A Fusion3 F400 3D printer, which prints objects up to 14” × 14” × 12.6” in size and offers a full view of objects as they print
• A BTE PrimusRS, an excellent rehabilitation and exercise machine for use by physical therapy, occupational therapy, and athletic training clients
• Coming to each campus in late Fall 2018 are anatomage tables, which are anatomy visualization tables that offer fully segmented real 3D human anatomy via a fully interactive touchscreen experience.

Leading A/V Platform and Other Tech

Each of our CICPs is also equipped with the leading clinical simulation management operating platform, SIMULATIONiQ by Education Management Solutions, which enables high-definition audiovisual (A/V) capture. With SIMULATIONiQ, faculty create scenarios and case studies that can be stored, shared, and adapted across the university. Simulations can be broadcast live to other classrooms, recorded for later debriefing and analysis, and incorporated into USAHS online and flex courses.

In addition, many USAHS classes incorporate electronic health record (EHR) software into the curriculum in order to prepare students for electronic documentation in clinical and medical patient settings.

Simulation bridges the gap between the classroom and your first clinical experience. USAHS’s Centers for Clinical Practice (CICPs) are safe, faculty-guided simulation environments where you can practice, make mistakes, and learn without putting real patients at risk. Because it puts you in the mindset of working in a clinical environment, working in a CICP can help you gain confidence and skills early in your educational journey. It’s a huge advantage to have that experience before your first job in the field.

What Simulation Teaches

In the CICP, you’ll learn to:

• Think on your feet as you adapt to a changing scenario; draw on all your classroom learning and critical thinking skills to make good decisions.
• Use real medical equipment, hospital beds, and rehabilitation machines.
• Practice hard skills, such as moving a patient from a hospital bed to a chair, feeding a patient in bed, and safely managing the movement of medical equipment.
• Quickly build trust with patients and their families by practicing bedside manners and other communication techniques that you can’t learn from books.
• Practice other scenario-based skills, such as helping a patient who has had a back injury and needs assistive devices, or performing a patient assessment in a home setting.
• Participate in complex role-plays to practice skills such as interprofessional communication, clinical decision making, and patient safety techniques while other students observe from the observation room.
• Work as part of an interprofessional team, discovering how clinical roles fit together. The CICPs give OT, PT, nursing, and speech therapy students the chance to collaborate as they would in the real-world environment.
• Work within special simulation contexts, such as moulage—realistic mock wounds created using special makeup, gels, wax paper, etc.—applied to a patient.
• Play the role of the standardized patient when it’s your turn, developing empathy for your future patients.
• Debrief in your class about your experience—talk about what worked well, what you could do differently, and how to apply your learning to practice.

This core team of USAHS leaders provides oversight for the Centers for Innovative Clinical Practice (CICP). These leaders are also members of the Innovation Steering Committee (ISC), which fosters innovative approaches to the curricular integration of educational technologies and the advancement of teaching excellence through new approaches and frameworks, such as simulation.

Dr. Maria Puzziferro, PhD

Dean, Digital Learning and Innovation
Dr. Maria Puzziferro leads the Innovation Steering Committee, which fosters innovative approaches to the curricular integration of educational technologies such as simulation, and the advancement of teaching excellence through new approaches and frameworks.

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 720-480-5961

Dr. Elisabeth McGee

Director, Centers for Innovative Clinical Practice, St. Augustine
Dr. McGee is the Director of Simulation Education and CICP Operations and the Vice Chair of the Innovation Steering Committee. Dr. McGee oversees the management, operations, and activities of the CICPs. She works with faculty and staff to support effective and safe simulation environments that employ current and best practices in simulation.

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 904-770-3543

Dr. Emily Frank

Manager of Simulation Education and Innovation Initiatives (TXAU)

Email: [email protected]
Extension: 3160

CICP Staff

Aaron Damon
Clinical Simulation Specialist, FLSA
Email: [email protected]

Mauricio Viana
Clinical Simulation Specialist, Miami
Email: [email protected]
Extension: 4151

Sydney Connolly
Clinical Simulation Specialist, TXDA
Email: [email protected]
Extension: 5737

Jarid Grier
Clinical Innovation Specialist, TXAU
Email: [email protected]

Andre Chan
Simulation Technician, CASM
Email: [email protected]