Simulations in Healthcare Education

Hello, sailornurse,

We utilize Sim Man, and currently have three. We use them in all the nursing, paramedic and resident teaching classes. It makes ACLS come to life, too!! We are going to purchase the obstetrical portion of the unit and I cannot wait for this. Teaching the OB portion of the nursing program will be much easier from now on - visuals and hands on.

Many ways to utilize this unique mannekin.

The Journal of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare

This journal is a new, multidisciplinary publication encompassing all areas of applications and research in healthcare simulation technology. The journal is relevant to a broad range of clinical and biomedical specialties, and will publish original basic, clinical, and translational research on these topics and more:

• Safety and quality-oriented training programs
• Development of educational and competency assessment standards Reports of experience in the use of simulation technology
• Virtual reality
• Epidemiologic modeling
• Molecular, pharmacologic, and disease modeling

http://www.simulationinhealthcare.co...856145!8091!-1

The Society for Simulation in Healthcare

A new society, the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH), was established in January 2004 to represent the rapidly growing group of educators and researchers who utilize a variety of simulation techniques for education, testing, and research in health care. The membership is united by its desire to improve performance and reduce errors in patient care using all types of simulation including task trainers, human patient simulators, virtual reality, and standardized patients.

We are a broad-based, multi-disciplinary, multi-specialty, international society with ties to all medical specialties, nursing, allied health paramedical personnel, and industry. A major venue for advancing simulation in medicine is the annual International Meeting for Medical Simulation (IMMS) that has been held successfully since 1995. SSH beginning in 2006 will wholly sponsor this meeting.

SSH welcomes ties with other organizations interested in patient simulation. Recognizing that simulation represents a paradigm shift in health care education, SSH promotes improvements in simulation technology, educational methods, practitioner assessment, and patient safety that promote better patient care and can improve patient outcome.

http://www.ssih.org/about/about.html

What is Simulation?

Two of the major challenges that confront the healthcare system are the accelerating need for education of practitioners and students and the imperative to maintain and improve patient safety in a rapidly changing healthcare milieu. As a highly technical diagnostic and treatment modalities advance, new chemo-and bio-pharmalogical methodologies abound and medical knowledge rapidly multiplies. We are daunted by the responsibility of educating a vast number of professionals in an expansive range of fields. Simulation techniques allow for interaction with almost any pre-programmed scenarios on demand.

May want to try these links also:

http://www.simdot.org/simblog/archives/mannequin/

http://www.simdot.org/simblog/

http://www.simdot.org/mt/mt-search.c...search=Sim+Man

High-tech ‘patients’ help nursing students learn

9:14 a.m., March 28, 2005--For nurse Elaine Burkett and the patients in the hospital ward she supervises, life is one medical crisis after another.
A child suddenly is stricken with an asthma attack, while, just one bed away, a woman’s blood pressure unexpectedly skyrockets. Not long after, an alarm sounds to warn that a newborn’s body temperature is dropping, and a nearby patient begins to experience such extreme breathing distress that he needs an emergency tracheotomy.

Fortunately for everyone concerned, this hospital ward really is a simulation lab for UD nursing students, and the patients occupying its beds are state-of-the-art, computerized mannequins that Burkett can program to mimic a variety of medical problems. It’s all part of a major initiative by the Department of Nursing to revamp the way students hone the clinical skills they will need as professionals.

“All our equipment is authentic hospital equipment, and the simulators are so lifelike and so advanced that we can program almost any kind of medical situation,” Burkett said. “I draw on my 20 years of nursing experience in a variety of settings to try to think of any kind of problem the students might encounter.”

The mannequins, manufactured by Laerdal Medical, have removable body parts to fit the scenarios Burkett devises. For example, after students learn how to dress a patient’s gaping abdominal wound, Burkett can replace the injured midsection with a normal one and instead program the chest to produce the sounds a nurse might hear through a stethoscope.

http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2005/m...ins032805.html

The Value of Simulations

The teaching power of high-tech dummies

If the thought of a teaching mannequin calls to mind an image of a “dummy” with rubbery body parts, think again. Nursing students are now practicing on lifelike mannequins that can speak and respond to pharmacological interventions.

Today's high-fidelity human patient simulators are full-bodied mannequins that come in adult, child, and infant sizes. These mannequins are connected to computers and can be programmed to mimic the signs and symptoms of a wide variety of medical conditions. The simulators produce lung, heart, and bowel sounds; have anatomically correct pulses; and respond to medical and pharmacological interventions with the expected physiological responses. Their chests move with respirations and their eyes blink when they are "conscious." They can be programmed to speak and, therefore, can interact with nurses much like an actual patient.

Patient simulators are also equipped with a number of features that encourage hands-on learning and critical thinking skills. For instance, some allow students to insert chest tubes, NG tubes, IVs, and urinary catheters or to dress a wound. They give students the opportunity to confront such acute clinical problems as airway obstruction, cardiac arrest, hemorrhage, and shock. A healthcare team can work through each clinical situation by assessing the presenting signs and symptoms, providing appropriate interventions, and managing the simulator's response to various treatments. The skills acquired through these exercises can help students make the transition to real-life patient care more easily.

Nursing Students get Hands-on Training in a Virtual ICU

This article looks very helpful for possible scenarios one could use in the lab setting (and looks pretty low-budget also):

http://www.vccaedu.org/inquiry/inqui.../i21pruit.html

NLN Receives Grant to Help Educators Use Simulations in Nursing Programs

The National League for Nursing received a grant from Laerdal Medical to fund a three-year project focused on developing a community of nurse educators who use simulation to promote and evaluate student learning.

The project will include the creation of a virtual Simulation Innovation and Resource Center (SIRC). Nurse educators will be able to access the SIRC to learn how to design and integrate effective simulations into their curricula. For additional information, visit:

http://www.nln.org/newsreleases/gran...dal_042007.htm