Montreal, May 10, 2023 - The Montreal Children's Hospital (MCH) is pleased to announce the official opening of its Centre for Pediatric Simulation, one of only a few world-class simulation centres with on-site pediatric education facilities.

The mission of the Centre for Pediatric Simulation is to provide interprofessional training created to mirror real-life situations – from the rarest to the most common scenarios – to help MCH teams provide the best patient care.

The goal of the centre is to advance clinical care, disseminate knowledge, increase patient, family and staff safety, strengthen the culture of simulation as a training method and generate research topics.

Growing demand

The MCH has been conducting simulations for many years to enhance the knowledge of its professionals. However, to meet the growing demand, a dedicated full-time team is now established and is housed in the MCH's National Bank Family Resource Centre.

"Continuing education is the cornerstone of ongoing improvement in patient care. Thanks to significant advances in the medical field, healthcare is becoming more complex, creating a pressing need for new and innovative learning methods for professionals, of which simulation is an integral part," says Dr. Ilana Bank, medical director of the Centre for Pediatric Simulation.

"The entire team is very proud to be opening today a cutting-edge centre that addresses the need for training."

Simulations foster the development of new skills, teamwork, problem-solving, decision-making and patient/family-centered care, while improving clinical outcomes.

Practice makes perfect, and simulation allows health professionals to put knowledge into action in a risk-free environment. By being exposed to a variety of medical situations, healthcare professionals are better prepared and more confident when caring for a sick child. They also learn best practices for communicating with patients and their families and for providing them with reassurance and comfort.  

Improving patient care, one simulation at a time

Services offered at the Centre for Pediatric Simulation include:

• a mobile unit to facilitate pediatric-based educational sessions in the hospital’s patient care areas;
• mannequins of varying sizes and ages to reflect the pediatric population;
• a dedicated multidisciplinary team committed to designing and facilitating educational sessions based on each team’s specific learning needs.

Many events can be simulated, including but not limited to trauma, surgical care, medical care, resuscitation drills, various codes (for example, respiratory arrest), and disaster preparedness. If you can think of it, the MCH team can simulate it!

The sessions can be filmed or live-streamed so they can be viewed remotely in real time or afterwards. Following each simulation, a debrief is organized to help identify challenges and opportunities for improvement.

"The Children's Foundation is extremely fortunate to be able to rely on our tremendously generous community of donors to step up to fund projects like the Centre for Pediatric Simulation. This innovative project is supported 100 per cent by donors. When we received an unexpected gift of $1M from the Thistledown Foundation last year, we knew immediately we could use it to make our pediatric simulation centre world-class. The Foundation is deeply grateful for their support,” says Renée Vézina, president of the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation.

“I would also like to thank Nan and Bill Lassner and CAE for their gifts. Thank you for helping the Children’s find unexpected ways to heal.” 

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About the Montreal Children’s Hospital 

Established in 1904, the Montreal Children's Hospital (MCH) is Quebec’s oldest children’s hospital and the pediatric hospital of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). A tertiary and quaternary care teaching and research facility, treating newborns, children and adolescents up to age 18, it serves 63 per cent of the geographic population of Quebec.

With its pediatric care and research facilities adjacent to the adult facility on the Glen site, the Children’s is in a unique position to offer services and research across the lifespan. The Centre for Innovative Medicine - the only clinical research centre in a hospital setting in North America – allows its researchers to conduct clinical trials on the Hospital site. 

The Children's is a leader in providing a broad spectrum of highly specialized care to young patients and families from all across Quebec. The hospital is a provincially designated trauma centre and is recognized for its wealth of expertise in cardiology and cardiac surgery, emergency care, neurology and neurosurgery. thechildren.com [1]

About the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation

The mission of The Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation (The Children’s Foundation) is to inspire and mobilize the community to support innovation in clinical care, research and teaching at The Montreal Children’s Hospital. The Children’s is the pediatric teaching hospital of McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and it supports the Child Health and Human Development Program of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, which, in 2022, ranked among the top three research institutes in Canada.

The Foundation has launched a major campaign with a goal of $200 million, the most ambitious fundraising objective for a pediatric hospital in Quebec’s history. Funds raised will advance groundbreaking projects that will push the envelope in pediatrics on an international scale and help The Children’s Find Unexpected Ways to Heal. Since its inception in 1973, the Foundation has raised more than $600 million, which has helped sick children in Montreal and around the world get back on their feet and return to their mischievous ways. Because a bratty kid is a healthy kid. For more information, please visit childrenfoundation.com [2]