It was my first week of clinical rotations, the transition that I had spent years waiting for. Finally, being able to take care of patients. I was a newly minted clinical-phase medical student assigned an evening shift in a busy Chicago emergency department, eager to learn from clinical experience rather than a textbook or Anki deck.
The shift had been relatively quiet, and only 30 minutes remained as I finished my final note and began mentally clocking out. Then the ambulance bay doors swung open. EMS rushed in, bagging a patient, and just like that, the quiet dissolved into a rush of urgency.
I ran behind the team into the room and found myself in the back corner: monitors alarming, nurses calling out to pharmacy, an EM resident trying to hold the chaos together. Amid the noise, EMS delivered the handoff: a 93-year-old female bradycardic, and seconds ago slipped into PEA.
Before I could fully process what was happening, a booming voice cut through the noise, “Hey, medical student, I need you on this chest doing compressions!” I made eye contact with a nurse who was signaling me over. I threw off my lanyard and stethoscope and moved toward the rapidly decompensating patient. I was no longer a spectator.
I requested a stepping stool and asked that the backboard from the crash cart be placed under her. I called for the defibrillator with CPR feedback positioned somewhere visible, verified the timekeeper and CPR coach, and began compressions.
The ACLS protocol continued around me: intraosseous access established, medications drawn, rhythms assessed, the team moving with practiced urgency. I stayed on the chest until, despite everything, time of death was called.
As we left the room, the nurse turned to me and said, “I can tell this wasn’t your first code.” He was shocked when I said I’d never done compressions on a real person. Walking home, I felt two emotions: grief for my 93-year-old patient who died in a brightly lit ER among strangers, and a quieter sense that we had given her a real chance, doing right by her.
The nurse’s surprise kept returning. How did I know to ask for a stepping stool, verify a timekeeper and CPR coach, or stay calm amid chaos? It felt like instinct, but it was really the seven months I spent as a student simulation specialist, teaching and coordinating simulation-based hospital staff training, including ACLS, PALS, inpatient CPR, and team scenarios. Repeating these sessions on autopilot had quietly built something in me I didn’t realize until I needed it.
What simulation gave me in that moment was the ability to perform without panic. When the nurse called my name, there was no freeze or self-doubt. There was only action, drawn from months of practice in low-stakes environments all before the high-stakes one. Simulation also gave me something equally important: visible competence.
In a crowded emergency room, a medical student is often seen as someone to work around. But my communication and self-advocacy signaled I belonged at the bedside and was capable of patient care. I wasn’t just being told what to do; I was contributing. I was no longer an observer but a practitioner when it mattered most.
Medical education is rapidly evolving. Preclinical curricula are shortening, and my peers and I are entering clinical settings earlier with less bedside time, yet expected to participate meaningfully in patient care. My experience illustrates why students need more than just clinical observation; we need practice competence before we arrive.
Most medical schools treat simulation as a one-time orientation event rather than a longitudinal practice. The state of medical education calls for a new status quo. Students need repeated, structured exposure to the same scenarios: enough repetitions that the response becomes reflexive.
Every simulation session builds knowledge and muscle memory that a student can draw on when it counts. Medical schools that treat simulation as merely a checkbox for accreditation are missing the point entirely. Simulation belongs in the medical curriculum just like clinical rotations; it is not merely preparation but an essential part of a physician’s practice.
Over the past month, I have often thought about that nurse’s surprise during that debrief. He expected real clinical experience. What I had was simulation. For our 93-year-old patient, in that moment, the difference didn’t matter, and that’s exactly the point.
Chuka Onuh is a medical student.
