It was a stressful situation for three nurses who had never participated in childbirth: a woman 32 weeks pregnant with pains and contractions.
The doctor was delayed in traffic. The nurses checked the vital signs calmly told him that will bid and even comforted.
“Everything’s fine, Mom,” the patient told the nurse Jascinth Brown, Plantation General Hospital. Fifteen minutes later, a premature but healthy baby was born with feet first.
Although the situation seemed real, the patient was a life-size mannequin named Noel. Within artificial baby had a cord and all.
Medical simulators have come a long way since the 60s, when first used a dummy named Annie to teach CPR. Using sensors and computer to mimic human reactions bodies, mannequins respond to anesthesia and mimic heart attacks and arrhythmias. They breathe, bleed, cry, speak and even give birth.
And its use has grown rapidly in Florida, where dozens of hospitals, universities, high schools and fire departments use them.
“They seem real,” said Brown, who was attentive to his patient’s vital signs on monitors during a recent training activity organized by the Florida Atlantic University (FAU). “I’ve worked in labs at the School of Nursing, but I’ve never seen a real game. Here we simulate a birth.”
Experts believe that the simulations improved medical services to provide an opportunity for students to learn critical skills and make mistakes in a realistic setting, without compromising the patient’s life. Students are tested and sometimes filmed during the drills.
The trainers then discussed ways in which students can improve their skills.
Plantation nurses said they had blood drawn to the pregnant patient, a mistake that they will never commit.
“They gained experience and confidence they need before getting into a situation where they do can mean life or death of a patient,’’said Mark Goldstein, director of FAU simulation center.
After six weeks of classes and simulations, nurses begin to deal with patients.
FAU has two simulation centers, one in his compound in Boca Raton and one in St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where the simulation took place recently. The exercise of labor was part of a new convention to which the university helps train nurses from 12 medical centers in Hospital Corporation of America in South Florida and elsewhere.
The Research Center of Medical Education Michael S. Gordon, Faculty of Medicine, University of Miami (UM) is a simulation centers oldest and best established in the country. Gordon, MD, UM professor, invented in 1968 a cardiac patient simulator called Harvey that is often used.
Tags: body, diagnostic, examination, Simulators
