Augmenting the reality of critical care:

BCIT’s School of Health uses robots to simulate working with real patients

They bleed. They cry. Heck, some even give birth. The medical ‘sims’ – lifelike robots now in use at the BCIT School of Health Sciences in its critical care nursing program – do just about everything a real hospital patient might. Learning the ropes on interactive robots provides a unique educational opportunity for students, giving them as real-world an experience in emergency health care as they can get without being thrown into a genuine hospital, says BCIT instructor Rob Kruger. Kruger leads the program’s simulation and innovation work.

“We have one of the largest simulation centres in Canada, with over 40 robots spanning from little neonates that weigh less than two pounds at 27 weeks gestation, all the way up to what looks like an older, retired, female patient,” says Kruger.

“These robots do just about everything that can happen in terms of patient reactions inside an acute care setting.”

While cutting-edge by some educational standards, medical sims have been an intrinsic part of the critical care nursing curriculum for many years, providing students with the unparalleled opportunity to get hands-on know-how in highstress situations that can occur in a critical care setting – all in a safe, controlled and simulated environment.

“It’s almost like our students are developing muscle memory, only in this respect the brain is the muscle,” Kruger says. “That way, when our grads go to work in a clinical practice setting, they are a lot more confident and capable of jumping into the fray right away.”

Capable of simulating childbirth (yes, a pregnant robot gives birth to a baby robot – really), trauma and heart attacks, the sims are so lifelike, students feel much like they would working with flesh and blood patients. And the aim is to expand the program soon to other health care disciplines at the school, including prosthetics and orthotics, and medical imaging technologies.

“We want them to get used to working in a team environment, which ultimately improves performance,” he adds. “That way when they do face high-stress situations, they can draw on their experiences with the simulations and carry out their duties to the best of their

These robots do just about everything that can happen in terms of patient reactions inside an acute care setting.