The Clinical Skills and Simulation Center (CSSC) at the Faculty of Medicine

The Clinical Skills and Simulation Center (CSSC) at the Faculty of Medicine comprises both the Clinical Skills Laboratory and the Simulation Hospital. These two units were integrated under the CSSC on January 2, 2025. The center is managed by Dr. Mohammad Akram Awwad (Assistant Dean for E-Learning and Simulation) and Dr. Suha Al-Beitawi (Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Family Medicine, and Obstetrics & Gynecology), appointed by the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Jumana Al-Sulaiman,

Teaching with manikins began in the Clinical Skills Laboratory, which has been in operation since the founding of the Faculty of Medicine in 2013. The Simulation Hospital was officially inaugurated on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, under the patronage of Prof. Islam Massad, President of Yarmouk University, and welcomed by the former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Prof. Manar Al-Lawama.

Location of the Center:

The Clinical Skills Laboratory is located on the ground floor, while the Simulation Hospital is situated in the basement level of the Faculty of Medicine- with access near the main gate.

Function of the Simulation Center:

The Clinical Skills Laboratory is dedicated to teaching students both basic and advanced clinical skills that are not necessarily linked to specific clinical cases ( A patient who needs history, exam and investigation). In contrast, the Simulation Hospital prepares students from the Faculty of Medicine and other health-related faculties at Yarmouk University (such as Pharmacy and Nursing) for hospital-based clinical practice from the early stages of their studies, before entering actual clinical training in hospitals.

Students are trained on simulation scenarios prepared by clinical course instructors, supervised and approved by the Simulation-Based Learning Committee, which consists of seven faculty members from various clinical disciplines. This ensures equal opportunities for all students to learn, examine, and manage common clinical cases—cases that may not be available to all student groups during hospital rotations.

The center trains students from Faculty of Fine Arts to act as standardized patients (SP's).

The center also offers training lectures for faculty members to enhance their competencies in simulation-based learning. In collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine’s administration, both in-person and online training workshops are held and to be held, provided by leading regional and international simulation  centers.

Sections of the Clinical Skills Laboratory:

The laboratory features two large halls, each capable of accommodating a different group of students from various health faculties at the same time. It houses a variety of manikins for teaching clinical skills such as:

• Male and female urinary catheterization

• Natural childbirth

• Chest and lung examination in both healthy individuals and patients with various clinical signs

• Cardiac examination (normal and abnormal heart conditions)

• Breast examination

• Intravenous and intramuscular injection techniques

• Pediatric lumbar puncture

• Hip dislocation examination (developmental dysplasia of the hip)

,and many other specialized manikins for different clinical procedures.

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Departments of the Simulation Hospital:

• Triage Department

• Reception Area

• Ophthalmology and ENT Clinics

• Early Breast Cancer Screening Clinic

• Three Clinical Examination Rooms

• A Room for Teaching Students Preoperative Sterilization Procedures

The hospital also includes two wards: one for internal medicine and intensive care, and another for maternal and child care. These wards are used to train students through clinical simulation scenarios.

Standardized patients, recruited from the Faculty of Arts students, are trained in the hospital by clinical faculty members. In addition, the hospital is equipped with high-fidelity manikins used in simulation scenarios alongside standardized patients.

There is also a dedicated lab for teaching basic clinical skills to students in the early (pre-clinical) years, as part of the new curriculum designed to introduce them to the clinical environment.