Simulation for Everyone - FlatPack Vein

A Journey of veins. A message from me thinking on Healthcare Simulation Week 2019 the day after first ever World Patient Safety Day. I thought about where have we actually got to, what can we celebrate then how far do we have to go? The question, as a trainer, was always how do we reach ALL the clinicians with A, B or C with a tight budget. In this short video I describe how the flatpack vein became over the 20 years.

Clinicians need to learn by experience and standardisation is key. Nothing new there but our innovation is new, it changes the way. I reveal how even when we got funding for safety devices, we had problems as clinicians stuffed their pockets with old stock! Remarkable. The clinicians would rather put themselves at risk than hurt their patient as they couldn't quite work something out. Now we can give them a tool to learn the new elements of the device to everyone who will go near the device.

We can also get research into their hands, (preventing the 17 years lag!!!) to apply it there and then and we can manage what they learn. Standardising training delivery in a way that works for each institution. When things happen, like a needlestick injury we can send a message out to all vein owners instantly and they can practise in the way we need them to via the QR code. Fast, low cost and for everyone.

Trainers can save so much time as learners see in the video so clearly what they need to do with their hands. Learning is faster and understanding is achieved and they can go away and continue to perfect the areas identified that need improvement. Training budgets are saved as mannequins are less abused so need less maintenance, device wastage is less as they quickly see what happens to the cannula in the vein when they move their hand.