July 2012 – Garrison, N. D.- It’s the next best thing to the real situation. Training on human-like simulators – all to be better trained when it comes to the actual thing.
And if response from this past week’s training session at the Garrison Memorial Hospital is any indication, patients can rest assure they will be in good hands if they are in need of medical care.
Officials with the UND School of Medicine visited the hospital and put health care providers from Garrison and Turtle Lake through their paces, training them in a number of various trauma and emergency situations.
Jon Allen, MD, with the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences, led the training sessions. He said the simulation-based healthcare training is about learning medical care and patient safety.
While training can be done using mannequins, or dummies, these high-tech simulators are equipped with many human-like traits. The units can be programmed exhibit many human attributes – dilated pupils, rapid pulse, irregular heartbeats – even delivering a child. Simulators can aslo be programmed to have seizures and respiratory problems. The simulators can cry, drool, breathe and bleed.
“They are so realistic,” said Garrison Memorial Hospital Director of Nursing Beth Hetletved. “It’s the next best thing to practicing on a real patient.”
Thirteen simulators were used in the training sessions. Staff would have to react and interact with their non-human patients as if they (staff) were with an actual patient.
The goal was to make the training session as realistic as possible. Hetletved said the training was invaluable.
“Everyone said it was a great learning experience,” she said. They learned little tricks, such as positioning…feeling their bones…repeating the process. (With the simulators) it makes it more real. It gets you so much more prepared for what might come in.”
Hetletved said the knowledge received from the training will pay off in the long run.
“They (staff) learned to use what they know collaboratively, provide better care and to work as a team,” she said.
It is hoped that the ND STAR simulation-based health care education can return. Like Hetletved said, “experience makes us more prepared to do what we have to do.”
The hands-on trauma training session was possible through a grant from the St. Joseph’s Community Health Foundation.
About the training
The Hands-on-Trauma Education training for Garrison Memorial Hospital, Community Memorial Hospital of Turtle Lake, and their respective ambulance service3s, provided staff training in various trauma scenarios and in emergency childbirth.
The two-day training was through ND STAR, Center for Healthcare Education, Simulation, Teaching nad Research for Health Education.
Training was for physicians, nurses, CRNAs and EMS personnel. The training involved high fidelity simulators and task trainers. Training included different Code Blue scenarios with a debriefing after the session. Hands-on instruction and practice included a variety of scenarios including chest tube insertion, airway management and intubation. More than 20 staff participated in the training.
The training was possible through a grant from the St. Joseph’s Community Health Foundation, Minot. The grant, written by administrative assistant Kelli Halvorson, was for approximately $9,000.
This article originally published in the McLean County Independent