Mobile medical training event coming to UND medical school parking lot
May 24—GRAND FORKS — Simulation In Motion — North Dakota (SIM-ND), a mobile project of UND's School of Medicine and Health Sciences Simulation Center, the North Dakota Department of Health and several area health providers are hosting an open house event on Wednesday, May 25.
The event will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, in the SMHS parking lot. SIM-ND is a statewide, mobile education system where replica emergency rooms, ambulance holds and high-fidelity human patient simulators are embedded within several 40-foot trucks, which travel the state to help train pre-hospital and hospital personnel in a variety of patient cases. Members of the UND and Grand Forks communities are invited to attend.
SIM-ND has been less active since 2020 due to the pandemic, but program lead Dr. Jon Allen said that the time is right to ramp up statewide activities again.
"With the ability to take training to the doorstep of the critical access hospitals, EMS units and military units, we are able to supply desired and needed training that would otherwise be missed," said Allen, who doubles as director of the SMHS Simulation Center. "Due to the great support of some of the major hospitals in the state and UND, we are able to do this at no charge to the end learner. This is only possible with a great team, as we have at SIM-ND."
Medical providers working with the SMHS on the SIM-ND program include Altru Health System, Essentia Health-Fargo, Sanford Health-Fargo and Trinity Health.
Grant funding from the Leona M. & Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust allowed the Simulation Center and the North Dakota Department of Health to design and implement SIM-ND with four large trucks outfitted with adult, pediatric, infant, and birthing manikins. The tools for teaching are high-fidelity computerized mannequins that talk, breathe, bleed, and can react to medications and other actions of the learners.
The event is free and open to the public.
