One of the high fidelity mannequins in an acute care simulation room at Medicine Hat College with vital signs showing on the screen above. They aren't light, and instructor Kristal Lawson estimates this one weighs about 80 kilograms.--NEWS PHOTO SAMANTHA JOHNSON
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
The new extension at Medicine Hat College houses expanded simulation rooms for nursing and paramedic students. One room contains an ambulance with all the equipment along with a driving simulation. There are also acute care rooms with high fidelity mannequins.
The new high-fidelity mannequins are connected to technological systems, and someone behind the scenes can give voice, movement and responses to the mannequins, which also breathe, blink, have a heartbeat and are warm to the touch. If the student performs the right procedures, the patient improves. Alternatively, if wrong action is taken, the symptoms will escalate, possibly leading to death.
Another element is the simulation can be recorded and the student can view it afterward, seeing what they did rather than relying on memory alone. Jason Openo, dean of the School of Heath and Community Services, said, “The student can be presented face to face with what they did in that particular situation. They can see themselves in a different way and that is often a moment of real learning and reflection for them.”
Kristal Lawson, nursing instructor and the simulation co-ordinator, has been with MHC since 2017. She explained the new rooms have created more opportunities for simulation.
“Now we have the old space and this additional space, which has three acute-care rooms (hospital setting) and the apartment.”
The paramedics use the apartment more, for nursing students it is mostly used to simulate a home-care setting.
Another benefit of the new extension is it allows inter-professional scenarios, particularly between both primary care paramedics, advanced care paramedics and nursing students.
“I think this is the next phase for our simulation,” stated Openo. “Para-medicine and nursing are two different programs but they often collaborate on simulations. We will move them (paramedics) down the hall as if they have driven from the scene, such as the apartment, to the hospital and hand the patient over to the nurses, allowing cross-program collaboration.”
Other collaborations can also be done, such as with social workers or animal-care professionals.
“There are lots of ways we can collaborate with other programs in interesting and meaningful ways. These inter-professional simulations are taking it to a whole new level. That’s why the Co-op Wellness Commons is such a big opportunity for us. We used to be able to do simulations but in cramped spaces, which didn’t look and feel much like a hospital,” stated Openo.
Not only an apartment and the clinical rooms, but there is also a counselling lab set up that can be utilized by the students.
“They love it, they love the new space,” said Lawson. “We have lots of high-fidelity mannequins that make it more realistic. We have a control room and can see three rooms at one time if we need to, along with a sound system to listen to students as they do their simulation. Better technology has improved the realism of the simulations.”
Lawson explained that the most important part of any simulation is the discussion afterward. This allows exploration of what students learned or how patient care could be improved the next time.
It has taken education to a whole new level at MHC, allowing students to work with mannequins that respond in real time, along with practising day-to-day clinical routines, such as delivering medication and inserting an IV.
