Current Projects
The UF Center for Simulation Education and Safety Research (CSESaR) is currently beginning a new project called the “School for the Medical Arts” (SoMA). With $24.8M in funding, from both the Duval County School System and the U.S. Department of Education, SoMA will become what we believe is the first, grade 6 to 12, full high school Magnet program in the U.S. with a medical focus. With the new funding, new structures will be built at the site and the enrollment at the school would be doubled. The importance of this for simulation is the role CSESaR played in getting this grant and the role we expect to play in the program.
The saga started two years ago. There was a middle school (Darnell Cookman) across the street from our affiliate, Shands Jacksonville Medical Center. We spoke with the school principal and offered tours of CSESaR as special interest field trips. We were surprised to find out that the school was already a medically focused magnet school. We started tours of 8 students each and ran them weekly for about 6 months. These 6th - 8th grade students came to the tour in full school-color scrubs, with stethoscopes around their necks. They were avid learners. This led to a summer student intern program and plans for a CSESaR open house for school parents. That drew the attention of other city school administrations and the Duval County school board. From that, and the knowledge of 9th-12th grade medical programs elsewhere, came the idea of a full high school medical program, the grant and promised follow-on funding support from Duval county.
The program includes substantial simulation training at CSESaR; traditional hands-on simulation as well as cutting edge Virtual Reality and hybrid scenarios. We expect students will graduate from high school with basic life support certification (BLS) and associate nursing credentials. Hopefully, they will then enter a college pre-med program with this unusual and advantageous background, subsequently entering medical school in a far more prepared state than the usual pre-med student.
This is not intended to be just a local CSESaR effort. CSESaR will encourage cooperative efforts among medical schools and simulation centers in the U.S. and around the world to support the effort.