State of the art training room installed to help support ICU
Donations to Derby & Burton Hospitals Charity, NHS Charities Together and fundraising on the ICU Unit, have funded a cutting-edge simulation training suite and manikin at Royal Derby Hospital enabling staff to provide the very best care to thousands of local people in hospital each week.
The equipment was funded with support from Derby & Burton Hospital Charity, Fundraising from ICU and Grants from NHS Charities together. As a tribute to Sir Tom Moore for his fantastic support of the NHS, the team have decided to call the manikin, Tom.
Senior Ward Manager of ICU, Caroline Swan, has been involved with the project from the onset, “Our initial idea was to convert the existing resource room on the Intensive Care Unit into a high-fidelity simulation and education suite.
As part of this we also wanted to purchase a simulation manikin with an added lung simulator to mimic an ICU patient and enable us to ventilator the patient and take over their breathing like we do for many of our patients and make bespoke training scenarios for example, difficult airways and intubation, dislodged airways emergencies, cardiac arrests and other emergency events.”
Simulation-based education provides doctors, nurses and other health care professionals a realistic and immersive form of training enabling them to learn together whilst caring for simulated patients.
“It will allow ICU to host Advanced life Support Courses in house and provide basic life support training for our non-registered member of staff to keep up to date with their mandatory training without having to book onto a very limited availability post pandemic. As this will be based on the Intensive Care Unit it will not require staff to leave the ICU.”
The sophisticated simulation equipment can replicate a wide range of medical conditions that patients experience including life-threatening and complex situations.
The manikin can breathe, speak, have audible heart and lung sounds, a measurable blood pressure pulse rate and respond to drugs and CPR.
“This training will be offered to all staff in intensive care, of all grades and disciplines. At any one time between 150-200 healthcare professionals will benefit. Many of these will be on rotation so it will benefit many patients throughout the hospital. By providing this training, we will be able ensure that the Intensive Care Unit continues to provide safe and high-quality care to critically ill patients.”