Overview

The Clinical Skills Education and Assessment Center (CSEAC) at The Ohio State University is a cornerstone of clinical education for future and current healthcare professionals. The mission of the center is to develop competent, caring healthcare professionals who have the skills necessary to provide high-quality care and who are committed to improving people’s lives through personalized health care.

When medical students visit CSEAC, they develop the skills necessary to apply medical knowledge, to gather information from and examine patients, and to communicate findings to patients and colleagues, all of which are integral components of optimal patient care.

Points of pride:

  • Endorsed by the American Society of Anesthesiology to offer Maintenance of Certification in Anesthesiology courses for practicing anesthesiologists
  • Recipient of four grants from the Ohio Department of Health to provide simulation training for providers statewide to reduce maternal mortality
  • Accredited by the American College of Surgeons as a Comprehensive Education Institute

Inside the center

Located on the sixth floor and lower level of Prior Hall, the Clinical Skills Education and Assessment Center is a comprehensive medical simulation facility that provides a safe, controlled learning environment for students, residents, and other medical trainees. As a medical student at Ohio State, you will have opportunities to practice a wide variety of medical procedures using the most advanced simulation technology available today.

Featuring 18,000 square feet of training space, the sixth floor of Prior Hall contains simulation bays, procedure laboratories, small group debriefing areas, and dedicated training rooms for ultrasound education and surgical skills.

Simulation Bays:

  • Each simulation bay contains simulators and devices that replicate the clinical environments of OSUWMC inpatient areas, helping trainees gain the confidence and skillsets needed to perform critical, lifesaving actions.
  • A simulated operating room is equipped with a high-fidelity patient simulator capable of exchanging gases, responding to respiratory treatments, and interfacing with a patient monitor.
  • An obstetric simulation bay is designed to provide training for scenarios encountered in the Labor & Delivery Unit, Postpartum Unit, and NICU, featuring the most advanced obstetric and neonatal simulators available.
  • Two critical care bays immerse learners in Emergency Department, Trauma, and ICU settings. They are often used in tandem to maintain small group sizes.
  • A final simulation bay on the second floor of Prior Hall has been modeled after a general medicine inpatient room. Ideally suited for observational learning, 233 Prior offers an adjacent observation room for real-time monitoring of sessions.

Flexible lab spaces are designed to support greater interdisciplinary interaction among health sciences trainees. Trainees are instructed in a variety of procedures, interventions, and skills. Endotracheal intubation, cricothyrotomy, arthrocentesis, thoracostomy, lumbar puncture, thoracentesis, paracentesis, central line placement, and wound suturing are just a few of the procedures that are taught and demonstrated regularly at the Clinical Skills Center.

A destination for those who are interested in point-of-care ultrasonography, the Clinical Skills Center frequently hosts ultrasound scanning sessions for medical students, residents, and faculty, covering ground from basic techniques to advanced concepts.

Clinical Skills Center staff venture outside of Prior Hall to deliver education in the areas in which providers practice. In-situ simulations are simulations that are performed in clinical environments using mobile simulators and recording devices. These simulations provide opportunities to improve patient outcomes by analyzing the performance of response teams in emergent scenarios.

Ann Crowe Essig Patient Simulation Learning Laboratory

To help medical students prepare for communicating with patients, the Ann Crowe Essig Patient Simulation Learning Laboratory offers a learning environment to practice history-taking and physical examination skills on standardized patients — healthy individuals who are trained to simulate patients with a disease or a particular set of symptoms. Video recordings of encounters provide an additional opportunity for skill development through faculty review and feedback.

Learn more about our Standardized Patient Program.

Location

The Clinical Skills Education and Assessment Center is located in Prior Hall (Health Sciences Library) at 376 West 10th Avenue. Prior Hall sits across the street from the Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital and neighbors University Hospital (Rhodes Hall). Visitor parking is available at the nearby SAFEAUTO Garage.

Simulation areas are located on the sixth and second floors of Prior Hall. The Ann Crowe Essig Patient Simulation Learning Laboratory occupies the lower level.

More about the Clinical Skills Center