When student Wendy Kadi begins medical rotations at hospitals this fall, she will already have hands-on experience, thanks to participating in robotic patient simulation exercises at NYIT.

Sidebar: Diagnosing Ms. Klein

On March 15, 2012, a simulation exercise is about to begin in the ICC. The banter is lighthearted among Anthony Guerne, patient simulation specialist, Carlos Magalhaes (D.O. ’00), assistant professor of family medicine, and Terry Wanamaker, the standardized patient “actor” booked for the exercise.

Wanamaker is heard but not seen; her voice is piped into the station room from behind a two-way mirror separating her from where “Stan,” the robotic patient, lies on a gurney, dressed in a wig. A microphone on the mannequin amplifies her voice.

As NYCOM students file into the room, Wanamaker is watching them from another room on the other side of the mirror. Guerne taps the vitals of the patient, Harriet Klein, into his MacBook computer, activating a nearby electrocardiograph (ECG) machine to blink jagged lines. His computer is ready to fire any of 300 drugs to the robot, which comes alive. This is now an emergency room, Harriet is the trauma patient, and the students are the doctors.

Second-year medical student Wendy Kadi plays the historian role. She soothes Harriet while extracting her medical history amid the beeping ECG machine and the cries of the distressed patient. Seconds before Harriet enters cardiac arrest, Wanamaker asserts her flair for drama.

“There’s a fluttery feeling in my chest,” she cries. “I’m feeling dizzy like I’m going to die!”

The students take turns doing CPR. They only pause once, when Wanamaker rushes into the room, this time as Harriet’s frantic daughter, Rachel. Guerne, the coach, keeps them focused.

“Your patient’s heart is not beating,” he says. “You need to beat for it!”

CPR is the most basic of life-saving techniques and an underestimated feat of endurance, as Guerne will later explain to students. He cites an American Heart Association study of elite athletes who performed CPR during two-minute intervals; each slowed down at the 1.45 mark.

Once Harriet stabilizes, the students call another doctor to see her. This is where Magalhaes, as nephrologist, comes in and explains, “the first thing you have to do is follow the basics but you have to be thinking one step ahead.”

In all, the exercise is over in less than 30 minutes. Wanamaker, Magalhaes, and Guerne debrief the students and provide feedback. They talk about strengths and errors made, such as the 20-second lull when the team stopped giving CPR due to Wanamaker’s chaotic entrance as Rachel.

The exercise has made an impression on Kadi.

“The point is to teach us to work in groups,” she says. “Anthony is right when he says you’re in the middle of it. It was empowering to take care of Harriet.”

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