Establishing a Simulation Centre in an Indian Medical College – the St. John’s Experience

Abstract

As part of the new competency-based curriculum, it has now become mandatory for all medical colleges in India to set up simulation centres for training undergraduate medical students. This article describes the establishment of a simulation centre at St. John's Medical College in India. The important considerations that enabled the success of this process included having a clear vision and mission, identifying and deploying resources effectively, having a transparent, well-defined leadership and administrative structure, conducting timely faculty development programs and the deliberate incorporation of simulation training into the curriculum. The major challenges encountered included the difficulty in involving all faculty due to considerations of time and the development of a viable selfsustaining financial model. Incorporating digital solutions to meet the challenges of tracking student learning as part of the CBC, decentralization of simulation training at the departmental level and establishing the second phase of the centre for speciality and super-specialty training are potential areas that need to be addressed in the future. It is hoped that these experiences will provide some insight to other medical colleges in India and countries with similar contexts as they establish their simulation centres.