The Simulation Center at the new Medical Education and Research Building in Indianapolis unexpectedly hosted its first large-scale standardized patient event in February — an inaugural milestone that came together in just one week, demonstrating the power of collaboration across Indiana University School of Medicine’s statewide system.
A winter storm the preceding week shut down the practice session for 66 students in the Foundations of Clinical Practice 1 course, originally scheduled at the Fairbanks Hall Simulation Center. That center, collaboratively operated by the IU School of Medicine, IU School of Nursing and IU Health, has its own staff — but Fairbanks was unavailable within the one-week timeline needed to get this important student practice session rescheduled.
“If we had not been able to make up this event, these students would have missed out on the practice entirely, which would have been unfair to them and their training since most other students across the state were able to complete it,” explained Stephanie Freed, MS, associate director of curriculum for Medical Student Education (MSE).
The newly opened Medical Education and Research Building, or MERB, has its own simulation center— effectively doubling the school’s capacity for conducting simulation training — but it does not have any dedicated staff.
Could a large-scale event like this be pulled off in just one week?
Enter Chad Rainey, statewide simulation technical director, and Matthew Tews, DO, MS, associate dean of IU School of Medicine—West Lafayette. Although the missed practice session did not involve students from their campus, Tews and Rainey have extensive experience in running simulations. Before joining IU, Tews was the associate dean for educational simulation at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.
“I knew it was possible based on my experience, but we needed to take the MERB Simulation Center technology and logistics for a test drive to ensure all aspects worked — and it worked well,” Tews said of the preparatory demonstration run by Rainey. “We then shifted our focus from the ‘what if’ to the ‘how’ and made it work. The curriculum team does great work, and they deserve all the credit for pulling the event together and running it in such a short time.”
Freed asked for volunteers from the MSE team who were interested in “training up” and expanding their skillset to include facilitating simulation events. Laurie Cline, Jeananne Reich, Marnita Louzon and Andrea Burkhardt answered that call, coordinating logistics with precision and keeping the entire operation running smoothly.
“It was a highly collaborative effort, and the success of the session was a direct result of strong leadership, effective coordination and everyone’s willingness to step in, learn quickly and work together,” Freed said. “Our team couldn't have done it as seamlessly without the support, training and help from Dr. Tews and Chad.”
Recruiting and training the staff wasn’t the only challenge for pulling off a successful simulation. The practice session involved standardized patients, actors who are trained to portray a specified patient scenario. The problem was the original actors were not available the following week. Freed’s team needed to look outside of Indianapolis.
Again, they relied on resources from the school’s regional campuses. Trained standardized patients were quickly recruited from West Lafayette and Fort Wayne. A few Indianapolis faculty also roleplayed as patients.
Neeta Agarwal, MD, served as faculty lead for the event, guiding students through the experience and supporting the team while watching it all from the simulation center’s control room. She even brought snacks to keep everyone energized.
During the simulation, medical students practiced their skills by taking patient medical histories and conducting physical exams. After a 45-minute interaction, the standardized patients provided their feedback on how the students performed.
“The students were appreciative that they got to do the practice, and they enjoyed being able to do it at the MERB, since they come here daily for their other courses,” Freed said.
Now that the new simulation center has demonstrated success with a large-scale event, Freed anticipates its expanded use in the upcoming academic year.
The collaborative effort underscores the value of IU School of Medicine’s “one school, nine campuses” footprint, said Rainey. He was happy to support the Indianapolis team and considers the event “a tremendous success.”
“The MERB contains a beautifully spacious and fully functional simulation center,” Rainey said. “All we had to do was sit at the controls behind a team of outstanding IU faculty and staff who were willing to learn and execute the vision.”
What began as a weather-related challenge became an opportunity to showcase the capabilities of the MERB Simulation Center and highlight the cooperative spirit among IU School of Medicine’s statewide team. In the end, it was a celebration of community, adaptability and a shared commitment to student learning.
“The success of this inaugural MERB Sim Center event reflects the strength of IU School of Medicine’s statewide network and our collective dedication to ensuring students thrive, no matter the obstacles,” Freed said.
