Social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic was implemented to decrease the spread of COVID-19. While implementation of social distancing helped to reduce the spread of COVID-19, it also reduced room capacity for teaching and learning. This was greatly noticed in areas/rooms that already had limited room capacity such as a control room in a simulation area. For safety measures, the capacity of control rooms at the Health Simulation Learning Centre was reduced from three to one. This reduction posed a significant challenge as the simulations and operation staff member needed to be present during simulation. This challenge allowed us to explore how we could have an opportunity for simulation technicians/operators and simulations to be present at the same time while following COVID-19 protocols. 

In order to overcome capacity limits of people in the control room, the Health Simulation Learning Centre team collaborated with the IT department to gain remote access of all manikins and computers. This allowed the simulation technicians to operate remotely while the situationist watched from the control room. 

Participants will identify ways they can operate high fidelity manikins remotely.