“Make him cry, Doc,” said JoAnn Williams, a registered nurse and educator learning to use new techniques to teach other nurses how to help a troubled newborn baby.
The pink little body on the hospital table emits a chilling wail, then gasps for breath, sending emergency medical responders into a visceral reaction to relieve its distress and save its life.
“That is a great example of the value of this system,” said Dr. Eric Brown, director of Palmetto Health System’s new patient simulation center.
The baby crying elicits a deep desire from responders to help the child, Brown said, something that was impossible to simulate when medical educators only had inanimate mannequins with which to train doctors, nurses and emergency medical technicians.
In this case, the baby is plastic. But it is hooked up to a computer that can direct it to simulate a variety of emergency conditions, including respiratory failure.
The Palmetto Health USC School of Medicine Simulation Center is starting with $500,000 worth of new equipment, and a $500,000 annual budget that will grow as demand for its services grows, said Blake Kyzer, the operations manager for the center.
Plans call for the center to get its own building, but that could change if its services evolve into a mobile rather than a stationary clinic.
Brown said he hopes to train as many as several hundred medical professional a week when the center is fully operational. He aims to make the center a regional educational resource, with its services and mobile clinic available to any institution.
“This is the new model of medical education,” Brown said. “We think we are ahead of the curve. In 10 years, this will be expected.”
Today, from 3 until 6 p.m., the Simulation Center will be open to the public.
“We would like for people to come and get a sense of what patient simulation can do for patient safety,” Brown said.
This baby’s little hands twitch like an infant experiencing seizures. Its stomach moves up and down and its ribs periodically push against its skin. Nurses can even grasp the snipped end of the umbilical cord and feel the baby’s heartbeat.
“Feel its heart rate,” said Minnie Cleveland, a registered nurse and medical educator who will teach others while using the mannequin for neo-natal training. The mannequin allows medical staff to practice responding to a variety of emergencies before they are confronted with a real life-or-death dilemma.
“If he doesn’t get enough oxygen, he turns blue,” Cleveland said.
And that raised the question whether the mannequin was anatomically correct.
“Today it’s a boy, but that can change,” said Brown, as the nurse pointed out the identifying body parts attached with Velcro.
Brown said a new medical journal is beginning to document the ways in which patient simulation can improve patient safety and medical outcomes.
Hospital settings are not the only venues for the simulations.
The mannequins and supporting equipment are completely mobile and can be set up anywhere, such as in the middle of a street for a simulated automobile crash, Brown said.
Reach Hammond at (803) 771-8474.
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