Simulation Centre
Learning Institute’s Simulation Program partners with Division of Emergency Medicine
A screaming infant is rushed into a room where the clinical team waits. They are told that the child has been hit by a car. They search under its arms for a pulse, feel for the rise and fall of its small chest with the palm of their hands. They notice the child's lips slowly turning blue. On the monitor they watch its oxygen saturation plummet. Its crying becomes weaker. They have to act quickly.
Fortunately, no lives are actually at risk. The baby is a high-fidelity simulation mannequin, recently purchased by SickKids Learning Institute, and the team is there as part of an interprofessional emergency medicine training course.
The mannequin is designed to help interprofessional teams practice and develop skills in a real-time, safe environment. Scenarios are designed to help the team identify and respond to a variety of clinical situations. “They had to discover one of its lungs had collapsed,” says Donna Carter, the Simulation Coordinator-Educator who controlled the mannequin’s condition using special software. To bring the scenarios to life, Donna worked with three doctors from the Emergency Medicine Division: Staff Physicians Dr. Angelo Mikrogianakis and Dr. Suzan Schneeweiss, and Dr. Vered Gazit, Clinical Fellow.
The goal of the program is to help the participants achieve a higher level of technical proficiency, and also to help them develop their communication skills in an interprofessional environment. “The learning does not necessarily come from being there with the baby, but from the discussion afterwards,” says Kelly McMillen, Director of the Learning Institute. She adds that the Simulation Program is emphasizing codevelopment by partnering with other groups across SickKids.
The infant mannequin used by the Simulation Program was acquired for the Learning Institute with the help of a generous donor. SickKids Simulation Program is the first in Toronto to focus entirely on the care of children. “That’s where we’re adding value,” says McMillen. “Ours will have a uniquely paediatric program.”