To
help residents train with real-life situations they are likely to encounter
in the operating room, the Department of Anesthesiology began using SimMan®
as a medical learning tool. This fully instrumented simulated patient allows
residents and students to become acclimated with real-life situations and reenact
stressful scenarios like a difficult
intubation, cardiac arrest,and other kinds of life threatening events.
Just
as other industries use simulators to train and learn how to avoid errors, our
Residents have a distinct advantage by being able to go through exact situations
and dilemmas that they can expect in the future. By practicing with the simulator,
if a stressful scenario does occur in the OR, our Residents will be well prepared.Using
the simulator, students are given the same pre-op assessments, equipment, medicine,
and monitors to recreate
the exact environment they will face.
Simulator
theory comes out of the space industry. Anesthesiology is the leader in medicine
for using a simulator to train students for actual patient crisis. SimMan®
grew out of the Resusci Anne Simulator® , the first generation resuscitation
model made by Laerdal. The Department acquired SimMan® in the fall of 2004.
Eventually the program will be expanded for training of other departments within
the University such as Emergency Medicine.
Residents
enjoy using SimMan® and understand the importance of taking advantage of
this exercise. It allows students to explore scenarios without the time constraints
of being in the OR. They can take their time to really learn each step of a
procedure. This immersion helps them commit to a plan of action.
Research
projects are also included in the simulation suite. Holter monitors can measure
the heart rhythm of Residents to see the effect of stress during the life-like
simulated crises. The simulator can also measure how Residents respond or score
when they are in peak condition vs. fatigued from being on-call for an extended
period of time.
Patient
safety is the foremost concern. The specialized training afforded by simulation
offers a great deal of interacting and learning. A Resident can have the best
plan in the world, but if the patient has a problem, you need to be able to
react to meet their needs quickly, efficiently, and safely.
