eSIM lab at Red Deer Regional Hospital helping health care workers hone their craft

Simulation services, though not as extensive, had been available at RDRH for several years prior to the eSIM lab’s opening.

The eventual expansion cost $400,000, with annual operating costs of roughly $225,000.

Frank, as he was referred to by Simulation Consultant Nadine Terpstra on this occasion, is actually a $100,000 SimMan 3G Plus — a state of the art artificial patient if there ever was one.

An artificial patient receives chest compressions during a simulation of cardiac arrest. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

“We have the ability to use nasal prongs on him, access the airway, we can put him on advanced life support, insert an endotracheal tube, we can do real CPR compressions, shock his heart with a defibrillator, start IVs, he has a real pulse, and he can experience things like a seizure or cardiac arrest. He can even talk and scream,” explains Terpstra.

“He’s what we call a high fidelity mannequin, which means he’s got lots of computers. He’s an expensive computer.”

The patient, which can have parts of its body altered for different types of sims, travels with its smaller mannequin cohorts around Central Zone so staff at rural hospitals also get opportunities.

A room adjacent to the lab allows practitioners alternate views of what’s going on, for an enhanced training experience. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

eSIM, or Educate, Simulate, Innovate, Motivate, represents the importance of why the lab exists in the first place, in Red Deer and other locales such as Calgary, Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. The lab also works closely with the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton.

Terpstra explains why simulation is vital to the work of health care professionals.

“Simulation-based education gives them a chance to practice real life clinical scenarios in a real-time and controlled environment, with no risk to patient safety. As an older registered nurse, I did not have the privilege of practicing in a simulation lab, so I had to practice in school or on a real patient. That’s the power of this,” she says.

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“This gives a team of staff to practice something that can really scare them. We try very hard to make it as realistic as possible, by using real medications, realistic diagnostic imaging, and afterwards we debrief to talk about challenges and what went well. We also do a lot of data reporting.”

Terpstra ran a simulation of a gastrointestinal bleed with a team last year, and two hours later, they had a patient with that exact ailment, she shared.

Back in 2012 when Terpstra started, she was given a cubicle and one far less sophisticated mannequin. The lab now has at least four, including ones that replicate a baby and a five-year-old.

The eSIM lab also has a baby simulator. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

She says scenarios also help team members practice their leadership skills, something not so easily practiced in school.

“It’s like dress rehearsal. Think about the Oilers practicing, orchestras or choirs practicing; this is such a cool thing for health care teams to have,” she concludes. “Perhaps they didn’t know how to drop a certain medication or how to use the life pack. They get to practice here, and they get a redo.”

From 2020 to 2022, 313 eSIM sessions were done at Red Deer Regional, with 3,147 participants.

by Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)/rdnewsNOW

eSIM lab at Red Deer Regional Hospital helping health care workers hone their craft

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