Best poster presentation awarded to CASH At The 1st UAE Clinical Simulation Conference 2014

Faculty of the Center for Advanced Simulation in Healthcare (CASH), Gulf Medical University, Ajman  actively participated in the “1^st UAE Clinical Simulation Conference (CSC), 2014” held in Dubai Health Care City, Dubai  at the Mohammad Bin Rashid Academic Medical Center in February 2014. The theme of the 2-day conference was “Simulation: A story board for training” and was the first of its kind in the MENA region, bringing together internationally renowned keynote speakers and local experts from the field of clinical simulation. Informative presentations and training sessions on the latest topics, best practices and techniques used in the clinical simulation specialty were the highlights of the conference. The event was endorsed by the Society in Europe for Simulation Applied to Medicine (SESAM).  

Professor Manda Venkatramana, Director, CASH and Dean, College of Medicine, GMU presented a case study on the topic “Integrating Simulation Based Education in Undergraduate Medical Curriculum: a Curricular Innovation at Gulf Medical University” highlighting an example of best practice and the educational model being followed at our medical school following the organ-system based integrated curriculum.

Dr. Nishida Chandrashekaran, Lecturer, CASH presented a poster on “Simulation Training in Surgery: Meeting the Challenges Head-on” co-authored by Professor Manda and Dr. Erum Khan. The poster concluded that while designing instructional curricula for simulation based surgical training in medical education, available evidence from best practices should be incorporated especially in terms of matching the expected competency level with the right type and fidelity of the surgical simulator.

Dr. Erum Khan, Simulation Instructor and Life Support Trainer at CASH, GMU presented a poster on “Evolution of Learning Spaces in Medical Education: the Constructive Learning Environment” as the primary author and was co-authored by Professor Manda Venkatramana and Dr. Nishida Chandrasekharan which bagged the Best Poster Presentation award in the Conference. The poster highlighted the importance of designing and implementing learning spaces and educational environments that support multidisciplinary, team taught, highly interactive and constructive learning. Constructive Learning Environment (CLE) defines a space that provides learners with opportunities and strategies to construct their own learning experiences both individually and in teams, based on their prior knowledge, skills and attitude.

Dr. Erum Khan proudly received the award during the Closing Ceremony of the Conference from Dr. Amer Ahmad Sharif, Managing Director, Education Division, DHCC.  The poster received critical acclaim and appreciation from the International Panel of Judges and the Keynote Speakers who commended the good work being carried out at the Center for Advanced Simulation in Healthcare as highlighted in the presentation.

The Center for Advanced Simulation in Healthcare situated within the Gulf Medical University campus at Ajman is a state-of-art facility and a recent value addition to complement the pedagogy of our students designed as a virtual hospital setting. The mission of CASH is to create a safe, controlled and non-threatening environment for health professionals to teach, train and assess the cognitive, psychomotor and affective skills ensuring high quality patient care and safety using various simulation technologies. CASH offers the American Heart Association accredited Basic and Advanced Life Support Courses at regular intervals.