What is the Clinical Skills Learning Center?

With shorter periods of hospitalazation, fewer patient beds and more health care facilities in the society, patients are now more acutely ill and highly dependent, causing less opportunities for medical students to practice and learn basic clinical skills. On the other hand, enhanced patient rights and other learnig limitations require that professional education provide not only knowledge and practical skills, but also graduates with communication skills and positive attitude towards learning. The Clinical Skills Learning Center (CSLC) has been developed in response to these needs in medical education and changing health care policies. It gives students the opportunity to practice a wide range of practical skills in a stress-free and controlled environment by using medical simulators, models, computers and other educational resources. A review of 20 CSLCs through the internet and also a review of related articles show that CSLC can provide connections between theorical issues and practical skills, reduce students’ anxiety and teach communication skills more effectively. A successful skills center needs to be flexible in its design, integral to the curriculum and relevent to educational and training requirements. This requires proper planning, organization and resources. In this article it has been attempted to present a general schema of CSLC and its application by investigating and comparing CSLCs in different universities of the world.