A total subsidy of 1.7 million euros has needed for the dream that the University of Granada has pursued for years … come true. The Faculty of Medicine, on the Health Campus, will finally have its own ‘hospital’. It will be a latest generation simulator that, through different tools, will offer students a faithful reflection of reality. From an ICU to a paritor. They will face all kinds of situations and put their clinical skills into practice. In some cases, it will even be a matter of life or death.
The project, which already has a form, will be built on the third floor of Tower A, of almost 400 square meters and completely diaphanous. In the eighth and latest version of the design, which has been able to know ideal, an entrance door to the hospital, an emergency unit that will serve as the ICU and an operating room that will be transformed into a paritor is appreciated according to the exercise. Likewise, a multipurpose room will be enabled that will mainly work as an entrance room. “We will have to make a complete endowment of the extraction and ventilation system and put lamps, stretchers, anesthesia tables and other belongings,” explains the Vice development of Development and Infrastructure Management and Clinical Practices, Lucas González. According to him, only in equipment will be invested around 730,000 euros.
With respect to patients, they will simply be remote interactive mannequins, although their technical name is advanced robotics simulator. They will be connected to a software computer system of more than 50,000 euros that will collect the image and audio of the cameras located in the multiple spaces. Teachers can make their medical picture from a computer or tablet and make adjustments as the practice progresses. For example, «before a myocardial infarction, you will have to take constants and put nitroglycerin, but it is also possible to program a ventricular fibrillation after three minutes and that the patient dies. The robot will respond to student actions, ”says González. Each of these costs around 100,000 euros.
Constant supervision
Next to each hospital simulator unit that will soon house the UGR, a control room will be built. From the same, technical staff will supervise everything that happens on the other side of the glass. Monitors, tables and microphones will be needed, among others. In addition, there will be aesbringing room where, ending the practice, students and teachers will discuss “how it has been developed and concluded, what has been done correctly and what should have been otherwise.” Only in sixth year there are about 1,500 hours of practices. The simulator will have the capacity to host almost 300 students. The objective is to prepare future doctors in a real hospital emergency environment.
The works reach 600,000 euros and are already in a tender phase. If everything progresses as planned, they will be completed before December 31 of this year. It is the deadline to justify the subsidy granted by the Ministry of Health, which seeks to promote the expansion of the number of medical students. The Faculty of the UGR requested it in August 2023 and since then has added 19 places to this degree that today has more than 1,600 students in Granada. Thus, it has achieved 1.4 million euros to improve infrastructure, to which another 330,000 euros are added for current expenses, such as hiring personnel to increase teachers.
If everything progresses as planned, the works of the new simulator will be finished when ending this year 2025
The current Deanery, led by Dean José Juan Jiménez, took the reins of the Faculty of Medicine in November 2024. However, the Vice Dean of Infrastructure and Clinical Practices, which has since been involved in the hospital project, recognizes “all the initial work of the previous team”, led by Aurora Valenzuela. «They started and we have taken the witness. We have to continue with this because it is essential for the development of our students, ”he emphasizes. According to him, there are other faculties in Spain with this type of simulators, “but they are seven or eight years old.” This means that, in Granada, “we are going to have the most pointer.”
