St. John’s Medical College, a premier institution well known for its excellence in medical education, strives to produce competent medical graduates who are compassionate and ethical. In its endeavour to continue this proud tradition amidst rapid societal and technological changes, the institution has set up an 1800 square foot state-of-the-art clinical skills and simulation centre. The construction of this centre was made possible by generous financial contributions by alumni and well-wishers of St. John’s.

THE JOURNEY

The idea of a simulation centre for the institution was envisioned during the planning of the institutional golden jubilee celebrations during 2013. Initial plans were put in place by a committee headed by Dr Sanjiv Lewin and Dr Swarna Rekha in 2013 to cater to the needs of undergraduate and postgraduate students. The implementation gained momentum under the leadership of the Director Rev Fr Dr Paul Parathazham and Associate Director for College, Rev Fr Duming Dias. In 2017, Dr John Stephen was appointed as the head of a team to coordinate and facilitate the setting up of the Clinical Skills Lab and Simulation Centre. Dr. Jui and Dr. Nachiket were appointed as coordinators of the Simulation Centre. Their dreams came to fruition on 7th February 2018 when the simulation centre was formally inaugurated.

Skills training was successfully incorporated into the MBBS curriculum from August 2018 onward. The centre also started conducting workshops for both in-house participants and those from other institutions. In November 2019, St. John’s partnered with Laerdal to host an international conference on simulation. In 2019, 51 training sessions were conducted for undergraduate students and 37 sessions for interns, postgraduate students and faculty.

The centre now has more than one hundred mannequins procured from Laerdal Medical. The most advanced of these simulators are SimMan 3G and Newborn Anne.

The Core Committee.
Sitting (from L-R): Dr Nachiket Shankar, Professor of Anatomy (Coordinator of the Clinical Skills Lab), Dr SuneethaNithyanandam, Professor & Head, Department of Ophthalmology; Fr Duming Dias, Associate Director, SJMC; Dr George D’souza, Dean, SJMC; Dr John Stephen S, HOD of Medical Education (Lead of the Implementation team); Standing (from L-R): Dr Sanjiv Lewin, Chief of Medical Services, SJMCH; Dr Shakuntala Murty, Professor & Head, Department of Emergency Medicine; Dr Soumya, Associate Professor of Medicine; Dr Shashikala, Professor, Department of OBG; Dr Jayashree, Associate Professor, Department of OBG; Dr Thenmozhi, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine; Dr Lalitha, Professor and Head, Department of Pediatric ICU; Ms Rani, Technical coordinator; Mr Ebenezer, Assistant technical coordinator.