Sturgeon Community Hospital unveils $1M high-tech simulation room for ‘better patient outcomes’

Nurses at the Sturgeon Community Hospital are demonstrating the new simulation centre, a space for health practitioners to hone their medical skills, on June 19, 2025. (Cam Wiebe/CTV News Edmonton)

Nurses and doctors at the Sturgeon Community Hospital have unveiled an on-site simulation centre to help them prepare for any medical scenario.

The simulation room, which was paid for by the Sturgeon Community Hospital Foundation, is a technologically-integrated space that can mimic several hospital settings, such as an operating room and the emergency department.

In the room, health staff can run any type of scenario, including cardiac arrest, delivering a baby, and emergency trauma, with any patient population they desire.

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The request to fundraise for the space came after the hospital bought an $87,000 simulation mannequin that can replicate human functions like breathing, sweating, bleeding or even communicating with their caretaker.

“We really took the needs of the hospital and learnings from other facilities across the province to create one of the most efficient simulation spaces,” said Ken Brisbin, the simulation lead for eSIM, the company that designed the room.

“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,” he added.

Krista Nunes, a clinical nurse educator at the Sturgeon Community Hospital, told CTV News Edmonton the need to practice medical procedures that won’t put a patient’s safety at risk is great.

“We’ve worked really hard to try to put together an education spot for training, for nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists here at the hospital … promoting best practices, safe care and better patient outcomes is absolutely key, and we get that through education,” Nunes said on Thursday.

“Simulation is always kind of a little bit hard and nerve wracking for people … the great thing about the centre is we’ve tried to make it look as much like a regular hospital room, a little more comfortable-in-our-normal-workplace type of environment,” she added.

The area also serves as a storage space for equipment and supplies, and also comes with two spare rooms that can be used for debriefing or host smaller education sessions.

The simulation room cost about $1 million.