University of Ottawa Skills and Simulation Centre

The University of Ottawa Skills and Simulation Centre (uOSSC) is a partnership between The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa and is located at The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic Campus. The uOSSC offers world-class facilities to train the next generation of health care professionals and it supports current professionals to hone their skills and develop new and innovative procedures.

Simulation-based medical education involves a wide range of tools for hands-on training and experience. In addition to health professions education, the uOSSC prioritizes research and development, as well as advancements in teaching practices, equipment and assessment of health professionals, to improve patient outcomes. Our facilities include approximately 25,000 square feet of specialized space which includes four state of the art theatre-based simulation rooms. The uOSSC also has 4,000 square feet of skills training space. These spaces allow trainees to practice skills such as intravenous insertion, suturing, and intubation. The Centre has six clinical exam rooms which are used for standardized patient encounters, ACLS and BLS Training. In 2014, the uOSSC began bringing simulation to the point of care with the Simulation Patient Safety Program. Using in-situ simulation sessions at the hospital, interprofessional teams of health practitioners can be trained in their own environment. This fosters a culture of patient safety, empowers team members to communicate more effectively, and allows latent safety threats to be identified.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the uOSSC and SPSP program shifted gears to provide support to The Ottawa Hospital staff as well as other local health care institutions. This included training sessions for the correct use of personal protective equipment, working with clinical groups to practice and refine changes in clinical protocols for COVID-19 patients, virtual reality videos for health care workers and patients to help train and orient them in a physically-distanced way.