Life-saving simulation training helps healthcare professionals deliver safer patient care
Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust
Our NHS Trust provides hospital & community health services across four localities in Salford, Oldham, Bury and Rochdale
This month, Toby Garrity (Learning and Development Manager for Simulation) highlights how simulation training is revolutionising how we prepare and train colleagues to effectively manage life-threatening and emergency situations.
Simulation based education (SBE) provides healthcare professionals with the opportunity to frequently practice, refine and manage patient care via the use of clinical and problem-solving skills without any risk to patients. Most training programmes are bespoke/tailored to the needs of the clinical area that the team is supporting in order to equip staff (of all levels) with the skills to provide quality driven, responsible and compassionate care to every patient. This service currently delivers training to approximately 3000 staff each year via a broad range of courses (internal, regional & national) encompassing different clinical disciplines within the four hospitals and community settings across the NCA.
How does it work?
Most healthcare professionals work within the NHS because they want to provide effective patient care and treatment – they want to make a positive impact on their patients’ journey. However unfortunately sometimes a patient may receive sub optimum care due to clinical staff inadvertently worsening a patient’s condition through clinical error or misjudgement. In order to mitigate this risk for our current and future workforce, learners are able to access simulation training that provides the opportunity to reproduce patient care scenarios in realistic clinical settings, whilst delivering treatment in ‘real-time’. In order to maximise each learning opportunity, training will usually consist of a multidisciplinary approach (encompassing doctors, nurses, AHPs and support staff) to allow staffing groups to work together (as in real life). This training is conducted in one of the purpose-built simulation suites or the clinical environment (insitu).
Our simulation suites
The NCA has two simulation suites (Oldham & Salford) which are accessible by all staff within the Trust. The facilities include a two bayed simulation ward, a one bay simulated acute setting, an adaptable simulation room (acute or ward) and a simulated GP consultation room.?
This allows the learner to explore effective patient management by mirroring clinical practice, teamwork, and escalation through the use of technical and non-technical skills. Being in the simulation suite ensures that the learner is away from their own clinical area, which in turn allows them to focus on their own training without the risk of distraction.
Insitu
This enables learners to work within their own teams within their own familiar clinical environment, this promotes the same attributes as the simulation suite, with the addition of being able to trial processes and procedures by giving an insight into patient flow and system performance i.e., is the correct equipment available for staff members to effectively perform their duties or do all staff members know where a particular piece of emergency equipment is kept? To answer this, scenarios can be written with a particular focused learning objective to determine any weaknesses within a process. If any are identified, an action plan can be produced to manage the issue.
Irrespective of which environment the session was delivered in, each scenario is followed by a debrief - this is a facilitated discussion that promotes a reflected approach to learning by addressing the learner’s feelings and analytical approaches whilst promoting psychological safety within a safe non-judgemental learning environment.
What equipment do we use?
Scenarios can be conducted with the use of high-fidelity manikins (which are fully programmable to have pulses, chest movement and breathing sounds etc.) or with a simulated patient (an actor or trained member of the faculty to act as the patient). This is usually determined by the specific learning outcomes of the scenario
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Manikins within the NCA include:
Responding to COVID-19
The value of simulation training was prominent during the pandemic, as the team delivered essential staff and patient safety related training to approximately 1000 learners within the first six months of the pandemic, under very difficult circumstances. This training helped to influence policy and procedures across the Trust. We also factored in the importance of staff wellbeing by analysing feedback from both a clinical and mental wellbeing point of view (i.e. anxiety).
The team was recognised for its achievements in increasing patient and staff safety at the Learning Technologies Awards 2021 winning the Gold Award for the ‘Best use of simulations or virtual environments for learning’ beating both national and international competition from multiple nations across the world. 2021 Winners - Learning Technologies 2023
Collaborating with other NHS Trusts
Simulation based education (SBE) is an essential part of clinical learning and is embedded in most clinical education curriculums. Due to this, the team has shared training material, programmes, and best practice procedures with other trusts within the NHS. These have now been adopted by multiple NHS trusts both regionally and nationally.
The Future
Moving forward, the team intend to increase training delivery and continue to instil best practice. Over the next 12 months we are looking to embed ‘Simulation Champions’ within clinical areas, install and develop an immersive training suite, support new clinical areas such as the new trauma building and expand our virtual reality (VR) offering.
The simulation team are able to support and develop new training programmes within your clinical area. Please contact [email protected] for further information.
Healthcare Business and Technology Transformation @ Google Cloud | Innovation | Thought Leadership
1 年What a fantastic initiative! The introduction of AR/VR to deliver an Immersive learning experience and the potential for embedding feedback loops across the simulation to build a Digital Twin makes this really exciting; would love to help where I can!