This Chicago classroom looks like a hospital — and that’s the point

CHICAGO - There is little room for error — if any — when healthcare workers are treating patients.

A recent study by Johns Hopkins Medicine found nearly 800,000 U.S. patients "die or are permanently disabled" every year due to a diagnostic error.

In a Fox Chicago special report, Dawn Hasbrouck takes a look at how one Chicago university is helping future medical professionals prepare not to make mistakes.

Learning by making mistakes

What we know:

Ally Andresen is a nursing graduate student. While it may look like she's in a hospital delivery room, she's really in a classroom at UIC. It’s not just any classroom – it’s a simulation lab — where the work is as real as it gets.

"I really enjoy it," Andresen said. "I think it's a really great tool to help prepare us for going out into the real world. It's great to get to be put into these situations that sometimes can be really stressful or high pressure where you don't necessarily know what to do and to have the opportunity to make mistakes in a way that's safe and doesn't harm anybody."

That's exactly what her instructors want her to do here. Make mistakes.

Dr. Katie Vanderzwan is the director of the nursing college's experiential learning and simulation laboratory. She also works as a nurse practitioner and knows firsthand just how important this type of training is.

"So patient safety from simulation cannot only take into account anything technical that's being done on the mannequin, but even communication-wise, something called ‘patient handoff or reports,’ another area that we can utilize simulation for. Those are all areas that have been evaluated as pitfalls," Vanderzwan said.

Simulating mental health scenarios

Another area where simulation training is helpful, but Vanderzwan says is sometimes overlooked, is mental health. UIC offers this type of education to its students who want to become behavioral health nurses.

In one exercise, students don’t interact with a high-tech mannequin, but a real-life person. An actor. Their instructor observes from another room to give students feedback on how they did after interacting with that "patient."

"I would say that a lot of people just assume it's working with robots or mannequins or different body parts. When you add in that human piece, a lot of people look at you a little, take a minute and say, ‘oh, that would make sense why you'd want to use an after.’ But it's something that is not as widely used, I would say in nursing programs. A lot more nursing programs focus on the mannequin or the tech-based portion of the simulation. Not all nursing schools have the ability to hire and train actors," Vanderzwan said.

When the patients are actors

Over at UIC’s College of Medicine, they have the Simulation and Integrative Learning Institute. It employs about 160 local actors to help students with their medical training.

"We are very blessed living in Chicago," said Bob Kiser, interim executive director of the Simulation and Integrative Learning Institute. "So, these actors are in the theater here. They do a lot of musicals, straight plays, The Goodman, Steppenwolf, et cetera. They also do movies, TV, different things around town."

When playing the role of a patient here, these actors help students learn how to use different pieces of equipment, like an ultrasound machine. But perhaps the most important part of their role is giving future doctors time to practice their bedside manner.

"A lot of this work is making sure that our students are connected to their patients, especially with technology today, there's so much technology, computers, etc. So I think it's even harder for healthcare providers to connect, to really hear their patients and participate in collaborative decision-making with these patients," Kiser said.

"These actors, they provide complex portrayals of these patients. They also can assess the students on what happened during the encounter. So, did they ask the right questions? Did they do the right maneuvers? But also, these actors — and I think this is one of the most important things--is they can tell the students how it felt to be their patient. They provide feedback on communication skills," he added.

"What's interesting is that a lot of studies showed that the medical errors happened because of communication. Not all medical errors, but there's a lot," Kiser said.

A model for the future

What's next:

He says from the time when medical students start here in just their second week of classes to the time they graduate, there is huge growth in their overall skills as a healthcare provider.

"They've grown a lot. So, I think there's like three huge transformations. Obviously, the one I think is with patient care and being connected to a patient and really listening to the patient. I think the second one is finding their authentic voice and how they connect to these patients. And then I think the last one is I think they have a better idea of who they want to be as their as a healthcare provider," Kiser said.

Kiser says UIC is one of the first human-based simulation education programs in the country that started nearly 40 years ago.

He says the program will soon be expanding to where they will be working with not just medical students but now law school students.