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New eSIM Lab opens in Central Alberta

Simulation program offers interactive, real-world training for clinical events
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A new eSIM Lab opened in Sundre this week. (Contributed photo)

A new simulation program in Sundre offers interactive, real-world training for clinical events.

The Sundre Hospital Futures Committee, which is the local health foundation, the Town of Sundre and Alberta Health Services opened a new eSIM Lab in the town this week – eSIM stands for Educate, Simulate, Innovate and Motivate.

The groups have developed the space for training opportunities for healthcare staff as well as town staff, members of the fire department and community residents.

The town supplied the 1,200 square-foot space, Sundre Hospital Futures facilitated grants and donations to renovate the space, while AHS will do the bulk of the training and facilitators have advised on setting up the space.

“The whole purpose of a simulation lab is to provide as close to real-life scenarios as we can to get the most optimal amount of training,” said Chantal Crawford, AHS site manager for Myron Thompson Health Centre and liaison with the Sundre Hospital Futures Committee.

This training can people understand what to do if things go wrong and how to operate new equipment, said Crawford.

“If you actually get to use the equipment, put your hands on the equipment, play with the equipment, then when you get into a true scenario in a hospital with a real patient, your level of understanding, knowledge and proficiency is that much better,” she said.

There are life-like mannequins used in the eSIM Lab, Crawford added.

“A lot of our mannequins are high-fidelity, which means they blink, they talk, they have pulses. We can start IVs on them, we can intubate them,” she said.

“We can create scenarios so we can have hands-on practice. We can run through a whole scenario, talk about it and understand what’s going on with the patient in real-time.”

Crawford said “if you can dream it up, we can simulate it” in the eSIM Lab.

“We can simulate anything from a cardiac arrest or trauma (to) having to talk a family through a loved one who’s passed away,” said Crawford.

“We can simulate pediatrics, adults – pretty much anything. If it’s something we see as a need – something we need to be more educated on – then we can build a scenario to learn it.”

This facility is the first rural simulation lab that’s a collaborative project between a community, AHS and Alberta Health, Crawford noted.



sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com

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Sean McIntosh

About the Author: Sean McIntosh

Sean joined the Red Deer Advocate team in the summer of 2017. Originally from Ontario, he worked in a small town of 2,000 in Saskatchewan for seven months before coming to Central Alberta.
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