Curtin University recently donated two patient simulators valued at $100,000 to King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEMH) to help train its staff in obstetric and neonatal emergencies.
SimMom and SimNewB are life-like patient simulations of a pregnant woman and newborn baby designed to provide hospital staff with education and training opportunities that are as close to real life as possible.
The two interactive patient simulators and a neonatal resuscitation cot were donated to KEMH’s Department of Nursing and Midwifery Education and Research (DNAMER) by the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Curtin in recognition of the midwifery education partnership between the two organisations.
Ms Janice Butt, Associate Director of Midwifery at Curtin and KEMH Coordinator of Midwifery Education, said SimMom and SimNewB are the most advanced patient simulators the hospital has had to date and will significantly improve training for students, midwives, nurses and doctors.
“With simulated patients we are able to design a wide range of emergency scenarios for training our staff that are completely realistic, with sim patients being programed to improve or deteriorate in response to the management that staff implement,” Ms Butt said.
“They will provide us with an excellent opportunity to train our staff in multidisciplinary teams including midwives, nurses, obstetricians, anaesthetists, and paediatricians, recreating the team that would be assembled during an actual emergency.”
From a computer located behind a two-way mirror, trainers can program SimMom to experience a number of birth complications including haemorrhage, shoulder dystocia and forceps delivery and make realistic pain noises throughout the simulated birth.
SimNewB can cry, experience breathing difficulties and have a seizure according to an actual clinical situation.
The two simulated patients are used in a specially designed demonstration room created to mimic a birth room and forms a part of the newly built DNAMER education and research facility at KEMH.
