Susana Barroso-Fernandez, Ph.D. ’16, an assistant professor of clinical and director of special projects for the Simulation Hospital at the UM School of Nursing and Health Studies, traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, in March for the We Are One U tour. She was part of an interdisciplinary delegation led by UM President Julio Frenk.
During the reception at Bogotá’s JW Marriott, Barroso-Fernandez delivered a ’Cane Talk about the School’s new Simulation Hospital for 100 alumni, incoming students, parents, and friends in attendance. She explained how the 41,000-square-foot hospital, one of the world’s largest, helps merge knowledge with practical experience.
“Simulation is one of the best tools we have to prepare our students for the real world,” she said. “Our simulators today talk, breathe; they have heartbeats, respiratory rates. We can make them have symptoms to a multitude of diseases and injuries.”
She stressed that the state-of-the-art facility, which opened in September 2017, will also help train global communities to prepare for and cope with natural disasters, pandemics, and other catastrophes.
“The Simulation Hospital isn’t just a local facility,” she explained. “We want to work with our global partners and give them the ability to be able to train so that their patients are safer and their communities are safer as well.”
Barroso-Fernandez debuted her ’Cane Talk on the Simulation Hospital this past November during the University of Miami’s Alumni Weekend and Homecoming.
You can watch her 10-minute presentation, “Simulated Settings, Real-World Impact: How Simulation Is Saving Lives and Charting a New Course for Healthcare,” at https://canetalks.miami.edu/cane-talkers/susana-barroso-fernandez/index.html.
