Making Simulation Task Trainers

Over the course of the month, I wanted to get the students from my interest group involved in some hands-on simulation.  We began the creation of a simulated, low cost, metallic corneal foreign body removal task trainer, and the students loved being apart of the experience!

I came up with the idea after realizing that although relatively simple, removal of a corneal foreign body is a very scary task!  I mean, come one, using a needle attached to a syringe to pick a piece of metal out of someones eye?!

After months of contemplation and research, I compiled a list of house hold items required to put the task-trainer together.  Using affordable, easy to access materials is not an uncommon practice in simulation, as many of the high-tech trainers can run anywhere from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, or are just not even in existence yet.

Before you begin this process, there are a few ways you can ensure the success of your outcome.

Come up with a novel idea.  Like with the process of developing my foreign body task trainer, I looked into whether this resources was already available.  I found an article that suggested a way for residents to practice this technique is by gluing an agar plate to a wall, and embedding several metal foreign bodies into it.  Then allow the resident to push a slit lamp up to the wall and use a needle and syringe to pick out the metal objects.  However effective this may be, it definitely was not as realistic.
First, you want to ensure that you are fulfilling a need at your facility.  Ask yourself, 'is something like this already available?'  'Do the residents or medical students need this kind of training?'  Where I trained for residency, we saw this quite a bit.  However, it is a rare event at UC Irvine, and I felt it would be a disservice to the residents to not teach them how.  Even if this presents many times to your ED, allowing the residents to practice this maneuver prior would prove effective in regard to patient safety and resident confidence while performing the procedure.

Do a cost analysis to determine whether its worth the time and effort to start to build.  Is it easier to invest your time and resources in the development process, or would it be more affordable to just purchase a pre-made version what you are looking for?


Ensure that it works... test it out!  Myself and the students who created this trainer did have a lot of fun picking out the metal foreign body.  However, we do plan to have our emergency medicine residents use the model for training purposes.

Please enjoy the final product of our task-trainer.  How realistic do you think it looks?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below!