Mayo Clinic offers all faculty, staff and students the opportunity to teach, train and learn in state-of-the-art simulated environments in multidisciplinary centers and learning laboratories across the organization.

Team-based approach for creating innovative experiences

Mayo Clinic has a Multidisciplinary Simulation Center in Arizona, Minnesota, and Florida (The J. Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver Simulation Center), and a simulation learning laboratory at Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

These teaching and learning environments support an integrated team-based practice approach with an innovative shared culture that promotes safety and trust.

Developing masterful practitioners

In an article penned for JAMA in 1927, Dr. William J. Mayo wrote, "When my brother and I entered practice, the whole science and art of surgery were rapidly changing. We secured our knowledge largely from experience. By turns, we eagerly visited every noted clinic in the civilized world in search of knowledge, and we also gained great inspiration thereby. When we heard of a man who appeared to be doing something unusual, we went to see him; sometimes he was in Europe, sometimes he was in a town near us. There is no excuse today for the surgeon to learn about the patient."

Today, as Mayo Clinic leads successful change among the shifting paradigms in health care and seizes opportunities to transform and innovate on behalf of patients, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science continues to prioritize experiential learning, just as Drs. Will and Charlie Mayo did throughout their careers.

Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science continues to create learning experiences using simulation by investing in immersive technologies –– extended realities, such as virtual reality and augmented reality –– to offer unique and effective ways to engage with digital content.

Extended realities (using mobile devices and virtual and augmented reality head-mounted displays) provide an environment that allows learners to be fully immersed in the material, experiencing it first-hand in a realistic, highly engaging and memorable way. Immersive technologies have the potential to provide personalized learning experiences, tailoring content to the individual needs of each learner and allowing them to keep pace with technological changes over their careers.

Recognizing the impact of simulation-based learning

Across all Mayo Clinic locations, multidisciplinary simulation centers and procedural skills mastery training laboratories provide year-round, scheduled and just-in-time learning opportunities.

Mayo Clinic will host "Healthcare Simulation In Person Conference 2023: Elements, Essentials & Excellence in Healthcare Simulation" on March 9–10 in Rochester. The conference is currently accepting presenter proposals. Submissions are due by Sept. 30.

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