Welcome HAL! New manikin advances our paediatric training
Epsom and St Helier’s newest team member is not quite like the rest of us, although he comes close! HAL is the latest edition to the Simulation team’s family, and he’ll be helping us continually improve our care for paediatric patients.
HAL is going to help children at Epsom and St Helier Hospitals by training our teams in essential skills they need through carefully crafted simulation scenarios.
On Tuesday 10th October at the Elena Power Simulation Centre at Epsom Hospital, we introduced HAL to our team and thanked Epsom Medical Equipment Fund, the charity that raised £41,000 to purchase our newest family member, HAL.
Dr Jennifer Blair, Consultant Anaesthetist, and Trust Lead for Simulation and Human Factors said, “This new addition to our manikin family will significantly improve the quality of the paediatric training and education and give staff an invaluable opportunity to train as a team in emergency situations. We look forward to using HAL on our paediatric courses, the learning it will generate, and the benefits he will bring to our paediatric patients.”
Deputy Mayor Steve Bridger and his wife, the Deputy Mayoress Carol Bridger attended the event and unveiled the plaque dedicated to the EMEF and their kind donation. Our young community, who have been instrumental in fundraising for EMEF, were represented by students from St Clement’s Primary School as well as the Year 4 choir from Shawley Community Primary School, part of Leo Academy Trust. The choir did a fabulous job waking up Hal and welcomed him with a cheerful song written especially for the occasion.
The presentation ceremony was followed by a tour of the simulation centre, to showcase some of the patient safety-focused, inter professional education and training provided for staff at Epsom and St Helier and the variety of high-tech manikins in use.
HAL is an extremely advanced manikin able to imitate a variety of real-life conditions. Some of his life-like features include talking, crying, facial expressions with head movements from side to side and eye movements. These life-like features enhance all the regular features that high fidelity manikins replicate such as breath sounds, respiratory conditions, heart sounds, eye conditions and bowel sounds.
In addition to HAL, the simulation team at Epsom has in total seven manikins they use to train staff. The family which are a mixture of dark, mid tone and white skin includes:
- Geriatric Dottie (who can also be male and a similar manikin is also at St Helier)
- Tom, the standard male manikin.
- Lucina, who can be a non-pregnant female as well as pre and post-partum and is also able to give birth.
- Two 3 month old Lifecast babies
Want to know more about the simulation team?
The simulation team runs mandatory training courses for all staff across our organisation, helping us to continually improve patient outcomes, patient safety and ensure patients have a good experience during their time in our hospital.
Their CRISIS (Care, Recognition, Initial, Stabilisation in Simulation) course family has been specifically designed and tailored for Epsom and St Helier hospitals staff. Healthcare Assistants, Nursing Associates, Registered Nurses, Allied Health Professionals, Physician Associates and Doctors train as an interprofessional team in the recognition and management of deteriorating patients.
CRISIS courses available include:
- Adult CRISIS - open to all staff working with adult patients.
- Critical Care CRISIS – open to staff working with adult patients in critical care
- Emergency Department CRISIS - open to staff working with adult patients in the Emergency Department.
- Neonatal CRISIS - open to staff working in neonatal care settings.
- Obstetric CRISIS - open to staff working in obstetric care settings.
- Paediatric CRISIS - open to all staff working in paediatric care settings (including the Emergency Department).
The centre also run a variety on in-situ simulation training including Recovery, Wards, Theatres and PACU.
The Elena Power Centre for Simulation and Human Factors has been closely involved with human factors, patient safety and quality work from its inception. All courses deliver an understanding of human factors as well as running individual course to provide an increased awareness of how humans interact physically and psychologically with technology, procedures, the environment, and other people with a view to optimise human and over all systems performance.
If you have any questions about simulation training, please get in touch with the team at esth.simulation@nhs.net
