Instances of PTSD on rise with Medic/Nursing students due to increased use of Human Patient simulators.

Human Patient simulators are becoming a mainstay of paramedic and nursing classes. The increase in their use has caused an alarming number of students to develop PTSD before graduation.

Years ago students on clinicals the most they had to worry about was boredom. Riding in a real ambulance or working in a real ER could be hit or miss with patient care. Some people would complete clinicals having dealt with noting more than routine cases.

Then the human patient simulator was invented. These lifelike robots can mimic any illness or injury. They also can respond like a human, both with verbal prompts and with changes to their vital signs.

As this technology has developed more schools are putting human patient simulators into their curriculum. Clinicals are being divided into simulator time and real world time.

Cody Maru a Paramedic instructor explains it like this “I make sure they kill a few patients before they ever see a real human. This way they have experienced the stress of a no win situation. Some patients will die no matter what you do. So I make sure student learn that lesson early.”

But the lessons on death are too much for some students.

Student Ben Sisko had this to day. “At first the simulators seem like just some kind of CPR mannequin. But then they start to talk to you. And then you touch them and you can feel a pulse, you can listen to breath sounds. They quickly seem like real patients. Then they die. Problem is they all look the same. So the next patient, looks just like the patient you saw die an hour ago. It is like some nightmare where you see the same person over and over, and they keep dying over and over.”

The issues Sisko talks about are echoed my students all over the country. At least a third of students in Cody Maru’s classes are being treated by a clinical psychologist, due to the stresses of the human patient simulators.

Instructor Maru is less than sympatric. “These simulators have no blood, and they are not screaming out in pain. These kids will see way worse out on the streets. Better they find out they can’t hack it here in the simulator, than out on the street.”