This episode was a ‘mix tape’ of moulage and other techniques to achieve physical realism in simulations – including procedural and anatomy teaching

Clare Scott offered her considerable expertise in moulage and making bespoke manikins for trauma simulations. She emphasized keeping in simple, keeping it real and doing your research – online and through networks of interested sim moulage folks (like Behind the sim curtain).

Clare offered some practical examples for making ‘Schkin’ for moulding wounds and other skin defects, bile from coke green food colouring, and more. She has a fabulous handout here:  

Keri Shafer shared her plans for using 3 D printing hearts to learn about congenital heart disease. Keri (@kerizozo) is a cardiologist from Boston whose clinical and educational work is focused on those tricky plumbing issues. Using a process designed to help surgeons operate better, she went to the 3D printing group within the Boston Childrens Hospital Simulation program and developed models of various forms of congenital heart disease. Fabulous collaboration between clinician educators and engineers. We wait with interest to hear the outcomes of her research in evaluating this educational technique.

We asked Andy Buck, of ETM course fame, about his favourite home made part task trainer, and how he makes it. Andy cited better functional task alignment and lower cost as key reasons to ‘make your own’. We chatted about whether 3D printing is ready for prime time for the average simulation educators? For those superkeen Andy is happen to be contacted on Twitter via DM (@edexam)

Finally, we spoke to Jessica Stokes-Parish in her minimal spare time between work and convening this year’s Australasian Simulation Congress. She’s just published an article that asks us to reflect of how much ‘bang for buck’ we get from the moulage efforts we make as sim educators.

Does Appearance Matter? Current Issues and Formulation of a Research Agenda for Moulage in Simulation. Stokes-Parish, Jessica B. M. Nurs (Adv Prac); Duvivier, Robbert MD, PhD; Jolly, Brian PhD. Simulation in Healthcare February 2017 - Volume 12 - Issue 1 - p 47–50

I enjoyed this article so much I wrote a blog post about it for the International Clinical Educators Network blog.