🎭 Session 5 · The Sim Bay
LIVE PATIENTS · YOU'RE THE TEAM
No more worksheets. This is the real thing. Your table just became an emergency room.
One of you is the patient, playing a real emergency. The other three are the team that has to figure out what is wrong and what to do. You will use everything from the last two days: the questions, the tools, the numbers, and your gut. Record it all on your 📋 Patient Chart.
🎬 How we play
- Commit to the acting. The more real the patient plays it, the better the whole thing works. Groan, wince, get anxious. Have fun with it.
- The patient is your classmate. Be kind. Explain what you are about to do before you do it, just like a real clinician.
- The numbers live on the Monitor Sheet, not on your friend. Your classmate's real pulse is probably fine. So the nurse puts the tools on for real, then reads the patient's true numbers off the monitor. Treat the monitor as the truth.
- Tools are shared. There is not a full set for every table, so the stethoscope, cuff, and pulse ox rotate. When it is your turn, use them for real, then read the monitor.
Phase 1 · Your Team
~10 MIN
Get into groups of four and hand out the roles. Every job matters, and you can swap for the next patient so everyone gets a turn.
🎭 The Patient
Gets a secret script. Plays how they feel, answers the team's questions, and gets worse if the team stalls. Never tells the team the diagnosis.
🩺 The Doctor
Leads. Asks the questions, listens hard, pulls the clues together, and makes the team's final call on what is wrong.
💉 The Nurse
Does the hands-on work: stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, pulse ox. Places each tool on the patient for real, then reads the true number off the monitor and calls it out.
✍️ The Recorder
Writes every finding and number on the chart, tracks what the team is thinking, and gets ready to present the case to the class.
👥 Some patients bring a companion
A few patients, like an older person, arrive with someone who came with them. For those groups, one person plays that companion instead of a third clinician. The companion knows the history the patient is too sick or confused to give, so the team has to remember to talk to them.
Phase 2 · How the Sim Works
~10 MIN
Each team gets a patient to run. The patient sits or lies down, gets a script, and starts the scene. Here is what makes this hard and fun:
- You have to figure it out. Nobody tells you what is wrong. You gather clues from your questions and the numbers on the monitor, then decide.
- There is more than one thing going on. Every patient has two or three problems. Find the big one, and know what you would do first.
- It happens over two visits. First you take the vitals and draw blood work. Then the results come back: flip to the results page to read the labs and recheck the vitals. Watch what moves.
- Everything you learned is in play: the BP chart, the oxygen and pulse ranges, the glucose numbers, wound care, and triage.
💡 Stuck? Ask for a hint
Your teacher is holding a hint sheet for every patient. Raise your hand to ask for it. First they will ask what you have found so far, so have your questions, your numbers, and your best guess ready. Real doctors think out loud before they ask for help too.
Phase 3 · Run the Sim
~50 MIN
Follow these steps for your patient. Take your time on the thinking, that is the whole point.
- Scene starts. The patient reads their opening line and plays it up.
- Walk in like professionals. Introduce yourselves, wash your hands, and ask the patient what is going on.
- Ask your questions. The doctor works through the questions on your team card. Listen closely, the patient's answers are half the clues.
- Take the vitals. The nurse uses the real tools on the patient, then reads the true numbers off the monitor and calls them out. The recorder writes them down.
- Spot the abnormal. Compare every number to what you learned. Which ones are out of range? Circle them on your chart.
- Send the blood work, then reassess. Tell your teacher you are drawing labs. When the results come back, flip to the results page to read them and recheck the vitals. Did anything get better or worse?
- Make the call. Huddle up. What are the two or three problems? What is the main one? What would you do first?
- Swap and run another. If there is time, trade roles and take on a new patient.
🔎 Your team's diagnosis (record on your chart)
Two or three things are going wrong with this patient. Write down each problem you found, name the main one, and write the first thing you would do about it. You will defend this to the class.
Phase 4 · Grand Rounds
~20 MIN
Every team ran a different patient. Now present yours to the class, the way real doctors do at morning rounds.
In 60 seconds, tell us:
- Who was your patient and what did they come in with?
- Which numbers were abnormal, and what changed when you reassessed?
- What did you decide was wrong, and what did you do first?
📌 Post to the class wall
Scan to post
Scan the code with your phone camera, or use the board below. Post your patient and your diagnosis in one line, plus the number that gave it away.
Phase 5 · Reflection & Career
~15 MIN
- Which role felt the most like you: the doctor asking questions, the nurse with the tools, the recorder keeping it all straight, or the patient selling the scene?
- What was the hardest part of figuring out what was wrong?
- You just did the real job. Flip to the Career Roadmap in your chart. Which path would you actually want to try?
Every job you played in this room is a real career that starts in Iowa, from a four-week phlebotomy certificate to a doctor at the University of Iowa. The roadmap in the back of your chart shows the whole ladder. You just proved you can climb it.
Woven Learning & Technology · Mini Med School · DMACC · Session 5 The Sim Bay
