Although the role of respiratory therapist is changing daily, one element remains consistent: The need for constant skills upgrades and information training. However, training is often impossible in a work situation where every available person is on call with multiple tasks and responsibilities.
We have found a new type of tutorial software designed for respiratory therapists (RTs) that creates an interactive learning environment by the use of a personal computer that can solve this problem. It can do this by enabling our hospital to ensure that the required levels of competencies are available, while training RTs in new theoretical techniques. We have analyzed the SimBioSys Labs Version 3.0 Simulator of Biological Systems-- Laboratory Interface and present its methodology below prior to our urging for its purchase and adoption.
The "Physiology Labs" program offers users an interactive, dynamic curriculum with animations, simulations, exercises, and quizzes integrated in a user-friendly interface. The CD-ROM program contains nineteen chapters including general, cardiovascular, respiratory, and renal physiology. One news report described it thus: "By combining cardiovascular, respiratory, and renal mathematical models, the SimBioSys engine reproduces over 1,000 physiological parameters to create a program that allows virtual experimentation...transforming the computer into a flight simulator, allowing health care professionals, students, and educators to truly discover the richness of human physiology using computer simulation" ("Critical Concepts," 1999, 21).
As explained on the company web site, the software is designed to replicate a state-of-the-art physiology lab with fully instrumented subjects where students can begin to experiment. "Explore all the richness of human physiology through experimentation by controlling clinically unavailable parameters such as cardiac contractility, lung infl
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