image: A new collaboration at The University of Texas at Arlington is offering pre-health students valuable hands-on experience. This semester, UT Arlington students in SCIE 4304: The Art of Diagnosing Disease in Humans, an advanced science course, participated in an immersive clinical simulation lab at the UTA Smart Hospital. The simulation lab is a joint effort by the College of Science, College of Nursing and Health Innovation and UTA Libraries.
Credit: UTA
Most undergraduates pursuing careers in medicine, dentistry or veterinary science don’t receive clinical training until graduate school. Instead, their pre-health coursework focuses on prerequisites like biology, chemistry, physics, statistics and genetics.
A new collaboration at The University of Texas at Arlington is changing that by offering pre-health students valuable hands-on experience. This semester, UT Arlington students in SCIE 4304: The Art of Diagnosing Disease in Humans, an advanced science course, participated in an immersive clinical simulation lab at the UTA Smart Hospital. The simulation lab is a joint effort by the College of Science, College of Nursing and Health Innovation and UTA Libraries.
“One goal is to teach students rudimentary clinical skills, and the other is to allow students to overcome the ‘imposter syndrome’ by building their self-confidence in clinical medicine,” said Steven Gellman, M.D., associate professor of practice who teaches the course.
To his knowledge, this is the first time a lab in clinical medicine has been included as part of a UTA College of Science pre-health course.
“The second goal is equally as important as the first, because that imposter syndrome holds a lot of medical students back,” Dr. Gellman added. “By giving them hands-on experience, it lets them see that they can do it and boosts their confidence.”
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The course examined a range of diagnostic tools used to screen, diagnose and monitor various health conditions, Gellman said. In the Simulation Lab, students practiced fundamental clinical skills such as checking vital signs, reading electrocardiograms and evaluating moulage—realistic simulated skin lesions or injuries applied to lifelike medical mannequins used to simulate patients for training purposes. Students also developed communication skills through interactions with both mannequins and live actors portraying patients.
“Through simulation, learners are able to experience taking vital signs, conducting specimen exams, suturing, gathering patient histories and performing physical exams and with standardized patients—trained actors or actresses in our program,” said Erica Hinojosa, simulation technology manager. “These hands-on experiences give students a better understanding of the health care profession, experience of what it’s like to be a physician, and preparation for the workforce.”
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Chloé Bennett, an experiential learning librarian with UTA Libraries, helped extensively with the curriculum development.
“My role has been expertise in experiential curriculum design, lesson planning and execution of the lessons,” Bennett said.
The curriculum expansion in 2025 builds on Gellman’s successful pre-health care “bootcamp” from 2024. That 10-day Clinical Experience Workshop gave the students the chance to practice skills like starting IV lines, delivering babies and participating in virtual-reality simulations.
-Greg Pederson, College of Science
About The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA)
Celebrating its 130th anniversary in 2025, The University of Texas at Arlington is a growing public research university in the heart of the thriving Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. With a student body of over 41,000, UTA is the second-largest institution in the University of Texas System, offering more than 180 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Recognized as a Carnegie R-1 university, UTA stands among the nation’s top 5% of institutions for research activity. UTA and its 280,000 alumni generate an annual economic impact of $28.8 billion for the state. The University has received the Innovation and Economic Prosperity designation from the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities and has earned recognition for its focus on student access and success, considered key drivers to economic growth and social progress for North Texas and beyond.