THE COUNTESS RESUSCITATION TEAM SPOTLIGHT ON…

Jenny Fairhurst, a Resuscitation Officer in the Resuscitation team, gives invaluable training to staff on how to perform resuscitation:

Who are the resus team and what do you do?

The cardiac arrest team are a mix of healthcare professionals with extensive skills, knowledge and experience in resuscitation. We have a wealth of experience spanning over 25 years. I have worked in this role at the Countess for five years but have been within the NHS and healthcare for over 26 years. Although we often attend to patients in cardiac arrest, a huge part of our focus is on teaching a variety of training to all types of hospital staff.

What does a typical day look like?

We check a dashboard for any problems with the defibrillators across the Trust and ensure they’re all in safe working order.

We attend wards when our bleep goes off, which means staff on wards need us. Many calls may not be for cardiac arrests and can be either minor or major situations. We’ll stay and assist either by helping to resuscitate a patient, scribing information or supporting loved ones during a worrying and anxious time.

Even if we’ve not been present during the cardiac arrest, we’re available to offer follow up support as we know it can be stressful and traumatic, so we want to ensure anyone involved is feeling supported mentally, emotionally, and procedurally.

What does training for staff involve?

It’s very interactive! We teach staff how to spot a deteriorating patient and give them basic life support skills for adults, children and infants.

There’s high-tech, innovative equipment and mannequins to make the simulated training environment as close to the real thing as possible. Our defibs are topof-the-range. They have CPR feedback technology that spots if high quality CPR is being performed at the right rate and depth, and if not it prompts staff to improve their technique.

The basic life support mannequins illuminate if we are performing CPR with the right technique and when we use SIM Man we can talk to it and mimic medical conditions like a real patient scenario. Our latest investment is a frighteningly lifelike mannequin named Vivian which can be rather distracting! What are the best and worst parts of the job?

It can be challenging to flex to the different types of patients in cardiac arrests and the job can be very intense. One of the things I love most is knowing learning has taken place.

You get people coming in who don’t feel confident about CPR and then you see their confidence grow as they do their training and by the end they’re focused and confident.

A lot of our work is about empowering staff and encouraging them to perform to the best of their ability, through lecturing, clinical skills or simulation training. Meeting and training others in such an important life skill is very rewarding.

Above all, we want staff to make sure our training equips them to perform CPR safely and in a competent and professional way.

Why is your work so important?

Everybody should learn resuscitationit’s a life skill and not just a clinical skill. Around 80% of out of hospital cardiac arrests happen either at home or in the workplace. Being trained to do CPR can mean the difference between life or death for a loved one.