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Computerized Dummy Brings Auburn Medical Classroom to Life

Valerie Crowder, WAER News

Patrick Richards, “Pat,” couldn’t stop coughing, just as two nurses at Auburn Community Hospitalrushed into his room.  An abnormal heartbeat sent the 50-year-old man to ACH’s emergency department Monday afternoon, where he later had a stroke and a heart attack.  He almost died, but two nurses and a respiratory therapist revived him through CPR and electric therapy.

A miraculous story, if Pat was a human.  Instead, he’s a mechanized mannequin, who can breathe, blink, talk and cough.  He even has a heartbeat.

Many medical classrooms throughout the country use human patient simulators, like Pat, to train students, as well as clinical staff.  These robotic dummies were designed to ensure patient safety by providing health care practitioners with a hands-on way to train.  For ACH nurses and other staff, simulators train them to revive patients who suffer sudden, life-threatening conditions, boost their confidence and enhance their clinical judgment.

Cardiac arrest, sepsis, respiratory depression, stroke symptoms and pneumonia all qualify as what Amy Bunn, an RN and staff educator, and her co-workers consider “high-risk, low-volume.”  ACH nurses don’t regularly encounter these potentially fatal conditions. 

“Because they’re not things that they get to see all the time, being able to practice with those situations, when they see it in real life, they’ll be more prepared,” Bunn said.   

Before Pat joined ACH’s education department, nurses worked with dummies that weren’t computerized.  Then, their trainers gave them cues before they could proceed.  Now, staff educators don’t even stand in the same room as the trainees.  They watch from a live webcam feed. 

Credit Valerie Crowder, WAER News
Nurses conduct CPR on Pat, a human patient simulator, at Auburn Community Hospital on Monday, July 30, 2013.

This “real-life” preparation leads to greater confidence, Tammy Sunderlin, ACH’s director of nursing, points out.  She’s seen her nurses become more comfortable helping real patients after training with the simulator. 
 

“It’s a whole different scenario when that information isn’t being said to you,” said Sunderlin. “You’re assessing the patient.  You’re relying on your skills to make these determinations.”

After the mock-scenarios, participants meet with their instructors for what they call a “debriefing.”  Staff educators review the video with trainees.  They also discuss possible improvements.

This review process helps nurses think more critically, which is important for developing good clinical judgment, Bunn says. 
 

“They actually get the chance to see themselves.  See what happened, and then critique themselves,” said Bunn.  “What could I have done differently? What would I have changed?  And normally in the clinical setting, we don’t have that luxury.” 
 

Auburn’s hospital received "Pat" from its liability insurer, CHART, in April.  The company offered ACH the simulator, free of charge, so long as the staff education department agreed to conduct at least eight training sessions a month.

Valerie studies Newspaper Online Journalism at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. She began reporting for WAER in 2008. Two years later, she started helping produce the afternoon state and local newscasts. Then, her passion for radio led her to report and anchor local news for KBEC 1390-AM in Waxahachie, TX from 2011 – 2012. After returning to WAER, she jumped right back in as assistant producer and weekend reporter. Now, she’s primarily interested in multimedia journalism, telling stories through print, photography and audio for the web. But you can still hear her this fall, as Friday’s host for All Things Considered. She enjoys the beautiful scenery around Syracuse. And she loves serving Central New Yorkers!