Imitation of Life

I have a theory, and it goes like this..........

 

Scratch beneath the surface of any Simulation Centre and you will find hoards of frustrated artists. No I am not talking about the type who perform best on a Christmas night out, I am talking about people with a natural flair for creativity. Most don't see what they do as art (if any) but I wouldn't mind wagering that working on a simulation course is not a million miles removed from developing a film or a stage play.

 

Let me explain. take the different aspects of commissioning, designing, facilitating and debriefing a course. First you have the producers. They identify the need and pull together the finances and resources to get the course off the ground. They choose the director and put together the cast. Then come the writers who weave the stories that are the scenarios. Without doubt every great scenario is a story with a leading man or lady (the patient) we have the conflict, something will inevitably come between our hero and a quiet life. There's always some kind of drama, we just hope there's going to be a happy ever after. thankfully there usually is.

 

Now we throw our actors into the mix. Some unwitting (the students/trainees) others are in on the act. These are the phone operators, the facilitator who blends in with the trainees, quietly waiting for their cue then jumping in and steering the scene one way or another, dropping subtle plot clues here and there and always having a key role in the final scene. Behind the mirror we have the patients voice. Here the ability to act and convince is vital if our trainees are to suspend their disbelief. Some of us are better than others.

 

Then we come to the director in the control room, making sure the movie stays on time and doesn't wander off plot, before finally we come to the post shoot edit - the debrief. Here we make sense of what we just shot. We try to throw out the stuff that didn't work and accentuate the positive before often attempting a reshoot. Ultimately we are looking to produce a directors cut at the end of the day - the rest can stay in the bloopers reel (that we never show to anybody promise).

 

Of course just like every great film crew we have the team behind the team. The make up artists and FX guys producing wounds, burns, bruises, and prosthetics. We have set designers reconfiguring the room to look like a theatre one minute and a patient's living room the next, not to mention wardrobe who dress the mannequin and make it look just like a real boy!

 

So with all this in mind it is quite fitting that our simulation centre has entered into what I think is an incredibly exciting partnership with a local Arts team. Type Partia into google an you may get a Polish Political Party first but keep going and you will come to Promoting Art in Aintree. A group run by Paula O'Malley, Aintree Hospital Arts Coordinator and a team of hardworking volunteers. Their focus is improving the quality of the patient experience through ward based art projects. There is much for staff too with a writers group and much, much more.

 

This partnership promises much, however we are very excited at the prospect of teaming up with local universities to provide drama students with opportunities to hone their skills in medical simulation scenarios. Having them play the role of relatives and carers and even patients will greatly enhance the realism of our scenarios. In short it's a win win. Who knows where this will lead. Is there a role for students studying movie make up techniques, budding special effects technicians or even a simulation centre actor in residence.

 

I will confidently state this though, if the life of our simulation centre can be likened to a epic movie, we are no were near the final act!