One of the patient spaces at the new Medicine Hat Regional Simulation Lab in the hospital. (Photo Courtesy Alberta Health Services)

By Chris Brown

State-of-the-art

New training simulation lab open at Medicine Hat hospital

Sep 25, 2020 | 3:13 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The Medicine Hat Regional Hospital is now home to a state-of-the-art simulation lab where health-care professionals can hone their skills and provide the best care possible to patients in southeastern Alberta.

The Medicine Hat Regional Simulation Lab features three dedicated patient spaces, a debriefing room and audiovisual equipment to record and playback the sessions for further training and education.

“Having simulation in your hospital and having a robust program really helps at all levels,” says Dr. Vincent Grant, medical director for the eSIM Provincial Simulation Program, Alberta Health Services. “We can use the space to train undergraduate students, they might be nursing students or even medical students that are out there or respiratory therapy students, paramedic students. The advantage of having the dedicated lab space is we can bring these groups together in one common environment to do that.”

Grant adds that the lab will also be used for on-going professional development for people new to the hospital, new to a specific department and even for teams that have worked together for years.

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He says the simulation training will not only allow staff to better their individual skill sets and teamwork, but will also identify safety threats to be mitigated.

“This really helps us to rehearse the care of patients in a way that we can work out all the kinks,” he explains. “Much like you practice at the driving range before you go out on the golf course or much like pilots practice what can go wrong in an airplane before they fly a plane.”

Alberta Health Services says the lab will support clinical practice areas such as pediatrics, emergency, trauma, mental health and more.

This is the 12th dedicated simulation lab in the province and Grant is impressed with the growth of simulation in southern Alberta. A similar facility exists in Lethbridge.

“The more that our simulation program and the access to it grows in southeastern Alberta the more we’ll be able to keep training even outside the four walls of the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital,” Grant says. “Because that large geographic area that it serves as the hub, we’re going to be able to work with those smaller communities and do simulation be it at the new sim lab or just building the program in scope enough that we can go out to those rural communities and even do training in their environments.”

The full $120,000 cost of the lab was funded by the Medicine Hat and District Health Foundation.

“The new eSIM lab is an investment in our healthcare staff,” says Heather Bach, executive director for Medicine Hat & District Health Foundation. “The foundation is proud to work with the Drowning Ford Grazing Association to provide this eSIM lab to Medicine Hat Regional Hospital. Thank you to them and all of our donors for making a difference.”

eSIM is a trademark for Educate, Simulate, Innovate, Motivate, and is a provincewide active healthcare simulation program, which offers an opportunity to improve the safety and quality of care for all Albertans.