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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.

Importance of Medical Simulation During COVID-19 Pandemic

With this article, we will explain medical simulation and its role in medical education and training and the importance of simulation for enhancing the hospital responses to the COVID-19 crisis.

Simulation has great importance in assisting the management of global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and also in similar future pandemics. Simulation can speedily facilitate hospital preparation and education of a number of healthcare workers and students of different backgrounds and has justified its value in many settings. It can be used to scale-up the manpower capacity from experiential learning. Simulation and simulation facilitators can also work for the optimisation of work structures and processes.

The medical simulation presents many essential strategies for detailed and practical training and patient care with enhanced safety. It is a technique, rather than just a technology that helps to encourage experiential and reflective learning. It is an essential strategy to train crisis resource management skills.

Simulation can help the individual learner, the multidisciplinary team, and the complete hospital.

Importance of Medical Simulation in COVID-19 Pandemic

Doctors are found lacking in the implementation of clinical skills, problem-solving and execution of information to patient care specifically in emergency situations despite having sufficient basic knowledge. To solve this, medical teaching and training was transformed to a system-based core curriculum with learning objectives focussing on cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains.

The motive was to generate an efficient, predetermined alteration in behaviour, acquired skills in the trainee with a focus towards problem-based learning. But, these domains cannot be taught on real patients in uncertain and critical situations.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity for simulation to utilize its strengths. The clinical care segment is sensitive to errors and stakes are pretty high if any error occurs. The pandemic comes with a higher risk for healthcare workers, that increases the chances of spreading the infection and getting infected.

Medical practice with simulation can decrease the cognitive load of the workers involved in the patient care, thus reducing the severity of error at times of pressure and exhaustion.

The rapid spread of COVID-19 and its pressure on the resources needs a synchronised action in different areas of the healthcare system involving staffing, bed management, equipment supply chains, nursing and medical treatment, diagnostic capabilities, infection control and hygiene skills compliance. With respect to equipment and human resources, the demand surpasses what is available in most of the present healthcare systems. Therefore, we need smart and efficient ways of increasing and training a workforce, locating and supplying equipment, and improving the work systems and processes.

Simulation can play an important role in solving these issues and simulation trainers mostly have valuable skills to complete the essential analytical work needed to fulfil the needs, content, and methods for implementing the effective interventions. Considering the current situation, proper analysis of learning requirements and simulation focus points are crucial, so that processes are followed properly and there is efficient utilization of resources for promoting effective patient care.

The use of manikins during medical simulation allows healthcare professionals to practice and perfect their technique without the fear of causing harm to a real patient. These manikins can be programmed to simulate a variety of scenarios, including COVID-19 patients, allowing healthcare professionals to develop their skills and improve their confidence in treating patients with the virus. Manikins can also simulate various medical conditions, which can help healthcare professionals understand the different presentations of COVID-19 and provide appropriate treatment.

Utilization of Simulation in Real-world Scenario

At the time of previous epidemics, the simulation was properly utilized for healthcare systems and processes. For instance, simulation-based training determined loopholes in the safety protocols at hospitals that were supposed to be prepared for Ebola management. Following the period of SARS, simulation-based airway management and cardiac arrest training programs were popularly acquired to enhance the hard and soft skills of the healthcare workers involved in patient care with highly transmissible diseases.

Presently, national and international healthcare institutions are sharing and frequently updating their simulation-based experiences. In addition, variable simulation governing bodies are delivering consistently updated lists of simulation resources.

The best example is the Toronto simulation-based multi-disciplinary scenario created by the emergency department for efficient management of suspected COVID-19 cases suffering from respiratory problems. The prince of Wales Hospital organised an in situ simulation at the ICUs and operating theaters to make their employees familiarize with the airway management principles in suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infections.

We explained medical simulation, its importance in COVID-19 pandemic and the present scenario with simulation-based training. If you have any queries, ask in the comment section below.