business backgrounder | education & workforce
Virtual Reality
New medical simulation program trains techs to improve healthcare outcomes.
Malia Jacobson
Medical simulation is a little-known but fast-growing field, but there is a lack of education and training programs available to aspiring technicians. Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake is helping to fill that void with its Medical Simulation Associate in Applied Science degree program.
Last October, a crowd of high school juniors roamed a job fair hosted by Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, picking up leaflets, brochures, and information about courses and careers. Second-year Big Bend nursing student Krys Higgs volunteered at the fair and chatted with dozens of students about careers in medical simulation.
Nearly every time, she was met with blank stares; the majority of the students hadn’ t heard of the field, says Higgs, a longtime emergency medical technician( EMT) from Electric City, Washington. She wasn’ t surprised. Though virtually every modern health care provider learned via simulation, most of the public is in the dark about the burgeoning field.
healthcare 2.0
That may be changing. Global market research firm MarketsandMarkets reports that the healthcare simulation industry— a market sector encompassing simulation mannequins, web-based simulations, software, and training services— is expected to grow at a rate of 15.6 percent annually to reach $ 2.27 billion by 2021.
According to the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, a professional group devoted to simulation education based in Washington D. C., medical simulation involves representing or amplifying simulated healthcare scenarios— anything from a complicated auto accident to cardiac arrest to a mother in labor— using lifelike high-tech“ simulators,” or mannequins, software systems, or scenarios involving human actors.
Simulation technicians are the professionals who manage simulation training for hospitals, universities, and community colleges, and can earn
at a glance
The medical simulation field is expected to grow by more than 15 percent annually and reach $ 2.27 billion by 2021.
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