August 21, 2025
Krista Nunes, clinical nurse educator, Sturgeon Community Hospital, has a new dedicated space to facilitate simulated medical response exercises in the site’s newly opened $1-million clinical simulation centre. Photo by Sharman Hnatiuk.
Running a simulation using electronic mannequins — including those specially designed for labour & delivery in a fully-equipped space that mimics a hospital environment — helps clinical staff recreate the most realistic high-stress scenarios possible. Photo by Sharman Hnatiuk.
Ken Brisbin, Simulation Lead - Planning, eSIM, AHS sets up a healthcare scenario in the Sturgeon Community Hospital’s new simulation centre. In the new dedicated space, clinical events are recreated to engage clinical teams through an interactive, immersive and meaningful real-world experience. Photo by Sharman Hnatiuk.
Story & photos by Sharman Hnatiuk
ST. ALBERT — The patient is convulsing, the heart monitor is rapidly beeping, and the adrenaline is pumping as a healthcare team at the Sturgeon Community Hospital diagnose and administer life-saving care. The energy in the hospital room feels tense, but this is just a medical response exercise taking place in a room designed to look exactly like a hospital room in the site’s newly opened $1-million clinical simulation centre.
In the new Sturgeon simulation centre, Krista Nunes, clinical nurse educator, now has the power to create the illusion and intensity of responding to a real-life medical emergency for healthcare teams at the site. Inside the province’s newest healthcare simulation suite, Nunes can create an immersive education experience by operating a technologically advanced mannequin in a replicated clinical room from behind the glass wall of a control room.
The request to fundraise and build a dedicated simulation space at the hospital came after the Sturgeon Community Hospital Foundation funded an $87,000 simulation mannequin so advanced it can simulate breathing, bleeding, sweating, convulsions and even speak in response to an operator’s directions.
Simulation prepares healthcare teams for high-risk situations, develops confidence in a safe learning environment, bridges the gap between textbook learning and real-life situations, and gives healthcare providers the freedom to learn from mistakes without causing patient harm.
“Running a simulation using an electronic mannequin in a fully-equipped space that mimics a hospital environment helps us recreate the most realistic high-stress scenario possible,” says Nunes.
“For our staff and physicians to deliver the best care possible, they must practise, especially less-frequent, high-acuity medical events and emergencies. It helps ensure our healthcare team has the skills and competency to meet the needs of the community.”
Previously, Nunes and a team of clinical nurse educators at the site would transport training equipment and simulation mannequins throughout the hospital to deliver education sessions. Most often, a clinical setting would not be available, and educators would teach in a boardroom or office. Having a dedicated simulation centre at the hospital is enabling Sturgeon staff and physicians to practise confidently in an immersive environment, refining procedural skills and teamwork.
“We really took the needs of the hospital and built a top-notch space for simulation and education,” says Ken Brisbin, simulation lead – planning, eSIM, Alberta Health Services. “This space will give healthcare practitioners at the Sturgeon the opportunity to practise realistic scenarios through guided facilitation and work together to achieve the best patient outcomes.”
The new centre will be used to simulate scenarios replicating practical situations specific to the needs of different departments and programs across the hospital, including emergency, labour and delivery, surgery and medicine units.
