Clinical Learning Resource Center
The Texas A&M Health Science Center Clinical Learning Resource Center trains and educates students with the latest tools and technology in a hospital environment to address the shortage of nurses and physicians alongside the needs of the health workforce throughout Texas.
About the Clinical Learning Resource Center
Specially designed to train and educate students with the latest tools and technology, the Clinical Learning Resource Center has made a significant impact in preparing both current and future nurses and health professionals in a controlled, simulated health care environment.
A report by the Health Resources and Services Administration indicated that in 2000, the national supply of full-time equivalent registered nurses was about 1.89 million while demand was 2 million, resulting in a shortage of 110,000 nurses (6 percent). By 2010, this deficit was expected to reach 12 percent, and if not addressed, could be 29 percent by the year 2020.
Further, according to the Texas Medical Association, Texas has far fewer physicians per capita, ranking 42nd in the nation in the number of physicians per population. A survey of medical student residents leaving Texas for graduate medical education found 38 percent preferred to stay in state, resulting in a combined loss of $27.4 million to the state of the investment in their medical education.
As a response to these shortages, the Clinical Learning Resource Center on the second floor of the Health Professions Education Building uses simulated environments that provide opportunities to respond to circumstances in real time while in a controlled setting.
Though the "patients" are either computer-programmed manikins or patient-actors, studies have shown the emotional and intellectual responses from participants is much like real life. In such a controlled environment, however, participants have a chance to learn from their mistakes, practice similar procedures repeatedly and practice new methods with no fear of impacting any patient outcomes.
Training in such an environment also allows for integrated teams to be provided invaluable real time feedback on their clinical and professional responses, communication with patients and colleagues, demonstrated leadership and ethical behavior, and likely impact on overall patient safety and outcomes.
Inside the Clinical Learning Resource Center is highly specialized instructional technology designed explicitly to support such activities. Computer-programmed full-body manikins - with the capacity to realistically simulate a range of physiological states and responses - are among these instructional tools.
Simulation centers are designed to replicate the minutest detail of hospital wards, emergency settings and clinic offices to assure a realistic experience. Specifically, the Clinical Learning Resource Center is equipped with an operating room (OR) with adjacent scrub sinks; emergency room (ER); intensive care unit (ICU); nursery, labor and delivery room (LDR); a 20-exam-table physical diagnosis room; two 10-bed hospital wards; two dedicated hospital rooms; 16 examination rooms; a nurses' station; a medication room; and a simulated home environment.
Two-way audio and video camera setups throughout the Clinical Learning Resource Center allow for both real time and post-training review of actions taken by the participants. The review of videotapes of various scenarios with both clinical and communications specialists with the participants and their team members has been demonstrated time and again to significantly improve the level of competency of the care providers and the quality of care provided to their actual patients.
The Clinical Learning Resource Center is routinely used by both medical students and nursing students to learn and refine their fundamental clinical skills, area hospital and clinic groups to learn and practice new techniques, and area pre-professional groups (from both local high schools and Texas A&M University) to provide hands-on experience with clinical practice and motivate them to consider a career in the health professions. Unique interprofessional education opportunities for participants from a variety of disciplines also are under development.
The Clinical Learning Resource Center specifically serves the College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy and the School of Rural Public Health in Bryan-College Station, along with other health professionals associated with the Texas A&M Health Science Center.
Clinical Learning Resource Center Administration
8447 State Highway 47, Suite 2006D
Bryan, TX 77807-3260
(979) 436-0160 Fax: (979) 436-0169
