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Newest patient is a real doll
Delta Hospital using $20,000 simulator for staff training BY
SANDOR GYARMATI
sgyarmati@delta-optimist.com
The newest member of the medical staff at Delta Hospital may not have much to say but will be an invaluable practice tool. The Delta Hospital Foundation recently purchased a simulator doll for the hospital’s clinical nurse educators. The life-like doll cost just under $20,000, a purchase made possible thanks to community donations. Simulator dolls are being used increasingly by hospitals to approximate clinical situations, allowing staff to practice and correct mistakes before treating patients. The life-size dolls make noises, including screaming. They can be hooked up to medical monitors, while central fluid lines or chest tubes can be inserted, just like a real patient. They have a pulse, bleed and have other lifelike functions to enhance training for both routine and more complicated medical situations. Someone at the hospital also has the ability to be in a different room, wearing a headset and mic, to talk through the doll to respond to the staff. At a demonstration at the hospital last week, the doll was defibrillated in a heart attack scenario. Alastair Thurley, a clinical nurse educator at the hospital, noted nurses’ skills can now be evaluated in a much less stressful environment than working on patients. “We’re finding sometimes the
SCAN WITH TO REVEAL VIDEO PHOTO BY
SANDOR GYARMATI
The medical staff at Delta Hospital will stay sharp thanks to a recently purchased high-tech simulation doll. Pictured (from left) are medical unit manager Doug Klassen with clinical nurse educators Jackie Demmy, Kirsten Shocohian and Alastair Thurley. students aren’t as clinically ready as we would hope, so this is one of the ways we can bring up their skill level without actually practicing on real-life patients.”
Noting doctors can also use the doll as a practice tool, Thurley said it would be invaluable in several areas of the hospital, including the ER, surgery and cardiol-
ogy. It can present complications staff may not see often, keeping skills current to deal with them. Delta Hospital’s redheaded simulation doll has a resemblance
to Richie Cunningham from the 1970s TV series Happy Days, but it hasn’t been given a nickname yet. The foundation will hold a naming contest later this year.
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