Inspire 2016 FALL
Wilcox: A Private Trust Enhances Nursing Education
Manikins allow staff to 'practice on plastic' first
When a medical emergency happens, hospital staff must be prepared. At Wilcox Medical Center, manikins are proving to be the answer. The life-size models of humans are the next best thing to working on a real person. The computerized simulator manikins are already giving nurses on Kauai confidence to handle situations they may have only seen in textbooks.
“We recently did a trauma simulation and we utilized the emergency room staff who don’t typically get their hands on some of the equipment this drill called for,” said clinical nurse educator Paula Hulme. “The staff expressed how invaluable of a lesson it was to have a pulse or no pulse on the simulator. It gave exposure to a procedure that is so rare for them.”
Soon Wilcox nurses will be able to prepare for other emergencies. The hospital recently received a $55,466 grant from the Antone & Edene Vidinha Charitable Trust for a Sim-Mom, a simulation manikin that trains people for high-risk birth situations. As the only hospital on Kauai, Wilcox does not handle high-risk births every day. The state-of-the-art technology will allow hospital staff to experience simulated births, birthing in different positions, cutting the umbilical cord, automobile accident trauma and other various complications of pregnancy.
Nursing manager Jaeda Elvenia is confident this new resource will increase the quality of nursing education.
“Using manikins in clinical simulations allows staff to ‘practice on plastic’ first,” Jaeda said. “It’s important that we have these scenarios because on average Wilcox delivers 600 babies a year. With the SimMom we will be able to train our nurses on varying complications so that we can be ready for whatever we are faced with.”
The SimMom will be part of a new simulation lab the Wilcox Health Foundation is hoping to build in the hospital with more funding from the community. If all goes as planned, the new lab will be completed by the beginning of next year. A large room will hold a group of simulators including a pregnant mother, a newborn and a male patient so the staff can gather around beds and practice in-the-moment medical decisions in real time.
“I think it’s really exciting to have our own dedicated space,” says clinical nurse educator Paula. “There are times when we are trying to work around available patient rooms that if needed, force us to cancel training. This lab will allow us to maintain our realistic treatments without worrying about losing our space.”