August 2021 - SEM Trainers

How does Simulation-based training can help clinicians to develop their ventilator operating skills?

In the COVID-19 pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic took over the whole country, MP’s across the country feared their state would not have enough ventilators to treat severely ill patients. And when they had ventilators available, they lacked human resources to operate them. Simulation-based training was introduced to help new joiners and clinicians to fill those vacancies and make them learn how to become familiar with the ventilators and other types of machinery.

Essentials for Ventilator Management Training

Critical patients with COVID-19 symptoms will often get to be placed on a ventilator to assist them to breathe. When a patient is mechanically ventilated, a Pulmonologist will provide care for them. However, as the number of COVID-19 patients mounted, many hospitals did not have enough staff trained to manage ventilators.
Many hospitals have shifted staff over to their emergency and care departments to provide relief to healthcare workers, who were overworked before the covid – 19 pandemic. The in-depth work of managing the ventilator requires specific training and skills and many clinicians and new joiners can intubate and subsequently mechanically ventilate the patient just because of simulation training.
Healthcare workers who don’t concentrate on critical care medicine or anesthesiology have little experience taking care of ventilated patients. This means that a lot of healthcare workers lack the clinical experience needed to require the care of ventilated patients.

Fortifying Ventilator Skills Through Simulation

Many universities and hospitals are turning to simulation to teach their clinicians and staff to ensure health workers have the talents to figure with ventilators. Simulation enables clinicians to practice employing a ventilator during a wise scenario, developing their knowledge and skills before using them on real people.
As the participants apply their skills and decision-making during a safe clinical environment, they receive feedback from educators. This allows the participants to spot mistakes, learn what went wrong, and improve their performance without putting real patients in danger. The students gain experience while using the ventilator screen simulator and also excel the skills needed to handle their patients.
Furthermore, a study found that residents who completed five hours of simulated ventilation training had an equivalent level of data as those that completed month-long rotations in an ICU. Thus, simulation-based training is often a useful gizmo for teaching ventilator management skills.

Clinicians learn new skills with the help of Simulation sessions.

Participants also incorporate the COVID-19 protocols. By practising the new protocols on a simulator, participants integrate them into their system until they become a manner. As a result, crucial moments for correct infection prevention aren’t missed during patient care, especially during airway emergencies.
Furthermore, since isimulate’s Ventilator Screen Simulation for REALITi360 is often placed on a true ventilator, participants also can find out how to switch the parameters of respiratory mechanics, including resistance, compliance, rate of respiration, etc. based on the simplest course of treatment.
SEM trainers and systems extend training and consultation for operating ventilator screen simulation for REALITi360. The learner can work on placing the patient on a ventilator practice establishing an airway. The scenario based training also allows them to experience a significant number of monitors, defibrillators and ventilators that they might encounter in their EMT or Hospital careers.

Simulation-based training is particularly important now considering the necessity for healthcare workers during this pandemic. As hospitals transition to emergency and important care departments, simulation-based training helps to make sure their capacity to supply care is typically enhanced and never compromised.

How simulation guides and trains for Hospital – Acquired Infections (HAI)?

Healthcare facilities work at large with contractor employees and healthcare workers to achieve operational efficiency. The elevator technicians, electricians, flooring contractors, painters, plumbers, etc. lack the functional knowledge of the adverse effects of their work on a low immunity patient. Maintaining hand hygiene has been the propaganda for the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Guiding and training these employees will certainly help to reduce the overwhelming number of Hospital-acquired Infections (HAI). Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Infections are commonly spread via the hands, so maintaining good hand hygiene habits is vital to prevent the spread of HAIs. Infection-control training can be provided to the personnel with the help of Scenario-based simulation training to hone good hand hygiene habits. Scenario-based training helps these habits become second nature, thus improving patient safety and the quality of care they receive. Find out how medical simulation is transforming education and training.

The infection gets transmitted with a source of infecting microorganisms, a susceptible host, and a means of transmission for the microorganism to the host.

A source of infection of Hospital-acquired Infections (HAI)

Often while offering healthcare facilities the patients are exposed to multiple microorganisms like viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc. They can be transmitted by another infected patient in the premises, contaminated medical equipment or devices, the hospital environment, health care workers, contaminated drugs, food and patient care equipment.

A Host to acquire Hospital-acquired Infections (HAI)

A susceptible host is an immunocompromised patient who is vulnerable to get infected. The factors that affect the condition could be age, underlying diseases, severe illness, immunosuppressive medications, surgical treatments.

The transmission of Hospital-acquired Infections (HAI)

Multiple intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors predispose patients to HAIs. The transmission of HAIs occurs through common routes like direct or indirect contact, respiratory droplets generated during coughing, sneezing, through airborne microorganisms, common carriers of the infection.

How to Prevent the Spread ?

Multiple factors influence the development of HAIs. Some of them are the acute illness of a patient and his overall health, the medical device/medicine usage for his treatment, some administrative variables like level of nurse education, the ratio of nurse to patients, etc.

To prevent the spread of HAIs, simulation training through scenario-based compliance can be practised.

Maintaining an ideal nurse to patient ratio in hospitals could reduce overcrowding and thus increase the adherence to hand hygiene.
Usage of alcohol-based waterless hand rubs to maintain hand hygiene.
Monitoring the compliance of hand hygiene and glove usage
Maintaining Environmental Cleanliness will reduce the probability of contamination.
Reduce occupational transmission of organisms from patient to health care worker through proper use of personal protective equipment
Post visual alerts instructing patients to notify respiratory infection.
Evaluate using documentation of the use of sterile barriers, time of antibiotic prophylaxis, the fullness of needle disposal containers, etc.

How does Simulation Training help?

Simulation can be a useful tool to make the healthcare staff aware of the infection control protocols. Small scale scenarios can help with the compliance and control protocols.

This training helps health care workers to work on their knowledge base as well as its application. To know about the clinical skills lab setup and benefits, click here.