The Broward College Health Sciences Simulation Center (HSSC), located in Davie, Florida, USA, is a state-of-the-art educational facility that models a hospital setting. It is designed to provide students with a safe learning environment where they transfer their understanding of theory into hands-on practice. The HSSC provides the opportunity for students to practice in realistic simulations, the development of decision-making skills, the reduction of errors, and the improvement of communication and teamwork.

The goal of the HSSC is to provide medical situations and scenarios that will help healthcare students master their skills through immersive simulation experiences. The HSSC is operated by Dr. Lilia Chavarria, District Director, Broward College.

As the largest provider of higher education programs in Broward County, Broward College is committed to fostering and achieving success for all students. The College has been recognized by the Aspen Institute three times consecutively as one of the nation’s top ten Community Colleges of Excellence for its outstanding commitment to student success and equitable student outcomes.

Mission

The HSSC provides quality, interprofessional, experiential learning, utilizing innovative curriculum, comprehensive clinical preparation, and modern collaborative health care simulation practices in a technologically advanced facility.

Vision

Cultivate interdisciplinary groups with critical thinking that value a culture of patient safety while developing simulation leaders in various health science disciplines. Develop and collaborate educational research activities using a team-based approach that focuses on advancements in patient safety and communication.

Goals

To create a safe learning and constructive debriefing environment for the participant, strict confidentiality of what transpires on both a clinical and interpersonal level throughout the exercise fosters a psychologically safe environment.

Facility Overview 

Our 66,000-square-foot, high-tech HSSC occupies the first and second floors. The Center mirrors an acute care hospital with an ambulance bay providing an emergency transport area, medical evaluation, and intake areas. The ambulance bay features a working ambulance vehicle where students offload patients into the ER triage room for treatment or admission to one of nine individual hospital or clinic-type rooms.








Rooms include:

  • Medical Surgical
  • Critical Care
  • Radiology
  • Emergency
  • Operating
  • Cardiac/trauma medical gases, e.g., oxygen, compressed air, and suction

Facility features:

  • Elevated Control Room with viewing window into four hospital rooms
  • Control Center with audio/video recording room; live patient voice interaction; overhead paging, i.e., "code blue"
  • Sky-wall that folds into the ceiling between Medical-Surgical Room and Birthing Suite
  • Space flexibility for disaster drills with multiple victims for easier observation and treatment
  • Hospital unit with utility rooms
  • Bio-Medical room—mannequin repair, equipment safety checks
  • Central Supply room for supply storage

The HSSC features a large auditorium space located on the ground floor with a seating capacity of 109. It can host a variety of events from conferences, and live simulations on the front stage to broadcasting webinars, or showing films with surround sound.

Anatomage Table

Broward College Healthcare Simulation Center continues to strive in bringing cutting-edge technology to our students. We are proud to announce that the college has acquired anatomical imaging Anatomage Tables for students to learn accurate real anatomical human structures. The Anatomage Table is the most technologically advanced 3D anatomy visualization and virtual dissection tool for anatomy and physiology education. The HSSC has already integrated this powerful learning tool enhancing the simulations and training.

anatomage table

MANNEQUIN SIMULATORS (SIMS)

Our state-of-the-art mannequin family simulators are all very human-like with blinking eyes, chest movement, heart and lung sounds, blood pressure, pulses, and a computerized EKG tracing.

The HSSC is proud to have the latest in advanced learning simulators, Victoria® S220, an Obstetric MR, or mixed reality training mannequin. This brings digital learning content into the physical simulation exercise, allowing participants to link knowledge and skill through an entirely new hands-on training experience. The future of labor and delivery simulation has arrived at the simulation center.

Laerdal-SonoSim Ultrasound Solution is integrated into the Laerdal patient simulator platform, starting with the SimMan family and SimMom. Diagnostic ultrasound includes real ultrasound cases with pathological findings with full-scale simulations. Ultrasound is a safe, portable, and non-invasive way to gain clinically relevant information.

The Cardiovascular Suite has three Harvey Cardiopulmonary Simulators that train students in bedside cardiovascular assessment skills. It:

  • Trains students to identify and describe normal and abnormal heart and lung sounds
    • Students learn more than 30 different abnormal heart sounds that are difficult to find in a real hospital environment
  • Comes with an innovative sound system, consisting of a transmitter and stethoscopes
  • Accommodates small or large groups of students

Mannequin Simulators and Task Trainers

Virtual Simulation Training

Many medical educators are challenged by replacing clinical hours or finding effective alternative online learning activities for their students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Broward College offers student-directed virtual clinical simulations and scenarios that allow students to learn online and fill this current gap in health care education.

Student Directed Virtual Simulations:

  • Sharpen evaluation and decision making, while increasing challenges progressively.
  • Provide a portfolio of online nursing and medical scenarios by integrating them into related courses and curricula.
  • Offer advanced technologies and digital solutions by remotely providing immediate knowledge to students and health care professionals.

This innovative line of teaching resources provides solutions for a range of content areas using Zoom. Scenarios commonly used in foundations, emergency room, med surg, pediatrics, psychiatry, capstone courses, obstetrics, radiology, OR and trauma can be integrated into related course and curricula.

Students utilize critical thinking and judgment with instant debriefing, which has proven to provide additional psychological safety to students in this remote environment. They also master acuity assessment, communication skills, care prioritization, and patient management and delegation. Our pre-built scenarios are entirely customizable by changing any parameters in them or by even creating their own. 

 

nursing students

86%

of allied health and nursing students surveyed said that virtual training experiences represented real-life scenarios.

simulation lab

91%

of students felt that the learning environment was safe and effective.

Meet Our Team

Dr. Lilia Chavarria, EdD, CHSE, RT (R) (CT) (MR), CSBI 
District Director

Dr. Chavarria is a tenured faculty at Broward College who previously served as the program director for the Radiography Program. She holds a doctorate degree in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis in Health Care Administration, a master’s degree in Health Sciences, and a bachelor’s degree in Radiologic Sciences. Dr. Chavarria worked in the hospital and outpatient standing facilities in different modalities such as Radiography, Interventional Imaging, CT and MR and served as clinical instructor for 14 years in several hospitals in South Florida.

Barbara Genader

Simulation Specialist

Prior to becoming a simulation specialist for Broward College, Ms. Genader served as faculty member with the Radiography program for 25 years. Throughout her career, she has worked as an Interventional and Cath Lab technologist, Orthopedics and Radiography technologist. She holds a certificate in Effective College Instruction through The Association of College and University Educators and The American Council on Education. At the Simulation Center, Ms. Genader enjoys applying moulage for various simulations, and better yet, disaster scenarios. She also takes on the role of standardized patient (SP) for scenario’s as domestic violence, human trafficking, BPPV and stroke.

Carolina Hoyos

Simulation Specialist

Mrs. Hoyos is a registered nurse and Broward College nursing alumni. After graduating she worked in the stepdown intensive care unit and the operating room. She has certifications in NIH Stroke, PeriOp 101 and ONS Chemotherapy Immunotherapy.  At the Simulation Center, Mrs. Hoyos enjoys working with the nursing students in simulations, practicing skills and giving them insight as an alumni and as a nurse at the hospital.

Certifications and Accreditations

SSH (Society for Simulation in Healthcare)

Broward College is an SSH Accredited Program in the areas of teaching/education. SSH Accreditation is a peer-reviewed, customized evaluation of your healthcare simulation program. SSH is the largest healthcare simulation accrediting body in the world.

Dr. Chavarria is a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator® (CHSE®) and currently serves as the Vice Chair of, the Patient Safety, and Simulation Collaborative Affinity Group for the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH).

Phone: 866-730-6127
Email: accreditation@ssih.org

Contact

  • Mailing Address
    3501 Davie Rd
    Davie, FL 33314
  • Telephone
    954-201-6440
  • Email
    Dr. Lilia Chavarria, HSCC District Director, EdD, CHSE, RT (R) (CT) (MR), CSBI
    lchavarr@broward.edu

Broward College Professors

To schedule a simulation with your class please fill out the Simulation Event Request form.

Contact Us

Hours Of Operations

Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Evening and weekend hours by appointment only.

Note: Due to COVID-19, hours of operation are subject to change.

HSSC Contact

Dr. Lilia Chavarria, District Director, Health Sciences Simulation Center

BCEDuventures Contact

David Rigby, Senior Director, Business Development

Filming requests require ten business day lead time, a deposit, and a contract are required for a reservation.

Location

A. Hugh Adams Central Campus
Building 1008 (west side of campus)
3501 Davie Road
Davie, FL 33314

Parking is available in the parking garage across from the Sim Center.

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