business backgrounder | education & workforce
Virtual Reality
New medical simulation program trains techs to improve healthcare outcomes .
Malia Jacobson
Medical simulation is a little-known but fast-growing field , but there is a lack of education and training programs available to aspiring technicians . Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake is helping to fill that void with its Medical Simulation Associate in Applied Science degree program .
Last October , a crowd of high school juniors roamed a job fair hosted by Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake , picking up leaflets , brochures , and information about courses and careers . Second-year Big Bend nursing student Krys Higgs volunteered at the fair and chatted with dozens of students about careers in medical simulation .
Nearly every time , she was met with blank stares ; the majority of the students hadn ’ t heard of the field , says Higgs , a longtime emergency medical technician ( EMT ) from Electric City , Washington . She wasn ’ t surprised . Though virtually every modern health care provider learned via simulation , most of the public is in the dark about the burgeoning field .
healthcare 2.0
That may be changing . Global market research firm MarketsandMarkets reports that the healthcare simulation industry — a market sector encompassing simulation mannequins , web-based simulations , software , and training services — is expected to grow at a rate of 15.6 percent annually to reach $ 2.27 billion by 2021 .
According to the Society for Simulation in Healthcare , a professional group devoted to simulation education based in Washington D . C ., medical simulation involves representing or amplifying simulated healthcare scenarios — anything from a complicated auto accident to cardiac arrest to a mother in labor — using lifelike high-tech “ simulators ,” or mannequins , software systems , or scenarios involving human actors .
Simulation technicians are the professionals who manage simulation training for hospitals , universities , and community colleges , and can earn
at a glance
The medical simulation field is expected to grow by more than 15 percent annually and reach $ 2.27 billion by 2021 .
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