Simulation Lab Offers McLeod Loris Seacoast Employees Unique Hands-On Trainin

McLEOD LORIS 16 MARCH 2012

(3/16/12) – The clinical staff at McLeod Loris Seacoast were given a unique educational opportunity to practice real life scenarios on life-like human mannequin models in Coastal Carolina Health Alliance’s visiting Mobile Simulation Lab. The mobile lab provides healthcare professionals with firsthand simulation training experiences that bridge the gap between traditional classroom learning and performing actual procedures on patients. It provides an interactive educational opportunity that allows participants to make timely medical decisions while also preparing them for the unexpected.

McLeod Loris Seacoast has arranged for the mobile unit to visit the campuses of McLeod Loris and McLeod Seacoast for four weeks each year. Outfitted to look, sound, and operate like a hospital emergency room, the Mobile Simulation Lab is used to train hospital-based nurses, residents and multidisciplinary patient care providers.

The mannequins used in the simulation lab are life-sized and are equipped with a number of features including an airway system, an intravenous arm, physiologically correct carotid, femoral, brachial and radial pulses and numerous cardiac rhythm variations that allow for a range of patient care scenarios. They can also produce spontaneous breathing, heart and lung sounds, coughing, moaning and other voice sounds. Training scenarios can include heart attack, chest pain assessment, pulmonary edema, electrocution, obstructed airway, head and chest trauma, abdominal trauma, drug overdoses, diabetic emergencies, childbirth, and basic CPR for adult and pediatric patients.

The training experience onboard the lab is the next closest thing to an actual hospital emergency, and trainees have the benefit of practicing procedures without causing harm to the patient. “The experience becomes real life. This is not a plastic dummy that does nothing,” according to Jamie Nealey, RN and Training Associate at McLeod Loris Seacoast. “These are very life-like models that can actually talk, scream, cry, bleed and sweat just like live patients.”

In addition to the unique training experience the Mobile Simulation Lab offers, each simulation is also recorded which allows an opportunity for staff members to review their simulation, evaluate themselves and the procedures applied during their exercise to assist in their training for real life scenarios.

The mobile simulation lab was made possible through grants from The Duke Endowment, The Cape Fear Foundation, and the Health Services Resource Administration. Financial support from these organizations provided for the purchase of the vehicle, equipment, and mannequins.

Coastal Carolinas Health Alliance (CCHA) is a network of hospitals in North Carolina and South Carolina whose mission is to provide value to its members by facilitating improvement of quality and delivery of health care and achievement of operational efficiencies. CCHA is a not-for-profit organization owned entirely by its member hospitals. CCHA has a proven track record of hospitals working together collaboratively to improve quality, accessibility and affordability of health care for the citizens of southeastern North Carolina and northeastern South Carolina.