NorthStar Acquires Patient Simulator Training Aid
Scenarios are programmed into the simulator to improve clinical skills
January 15, 2010
Felicia Harris, NorthStar operations manager, is shown treating the MetiMan patient simulator.
NorthStar EMS, the regional ambulance service of Franklin Memorial Hospital, recently purchased a MetiMan patient simulator. This state-of-the-art full size simulator is designed to help train NorthStar and Franklin Memorial Hospital staff in areas of cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, trauma, critical care, and general illness scenarios.
The lifelike, adult-sized manikin can replicate realistic breathing movement and sounds, heart sounds and rhythms, as well as actual pulses in several areas of the body. The eyes blink and are reactive to light and there are verbal responses to stimuli. IVs can placed, access to airways can be secured, and blood pressure can be taken. A major innovative feature of the MetiMan is that it reacts to medications in the same way that a person would.
With its built-in wireless computer, hundreds of scenarios can be programmed into the simulator to improve clinical response. And, the simulator can be positioned and moved as if it were a real person.
According to David Robie, executive director of NorthStar, “MetiMan, with its vast array of clinical scenarios and lifelike responsiveness will be a key element in improving the skills of our already excellent NorthStar staff. Repetitive approaches to real-life medical situations will give us a standard of training never before achieved. Additionally, when the “patient” is a simulator, innovative or alternate care treatments can safely be tried knowing that there will be no harm done. With its ability to record interventions, we can measure how well we respond to any situation and, if necessary, take steps to improve our response well before we are faced with the situation in a real patient.”
MetiMan is a product of Medical Education Technologies. Versions of this simulator are also used by LifeFlight of Maine and the U.S. government to train its corpsmen. Added Mike Senecal, regional operations manager with NorthStar, “With the support of the hospital’s Education Department and NorthStar’s own training team, this state-of-the-art human simulator will add one more significant tool to improve the knowledge base of the health care professionals throughout Franklin Community Health Network.”
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