KGH complete £600K simulation training suite for its doctors & nurses
Kettering General Hospital has completed a £600,000 new state-of-the-art simulation training suite for its doctors and nurses.
The new High Fidelity Simulation Suite has realistic full-sized patient manikins - which are computerised and can be programmed to simulate real medical emergencies.
The suite provides opportunities for its staff to practice life-saving interventions and learn how to deal with a wide variety of surgical and medical problems.
The new suite has been built adjacent to the Trust’s Postgraduate Education Centre and opens on Wednesday, December 12.
Kettering General Hospital’s Director of Medical Education, Dr Syed Fayyaz Hussain, said: “This is a very exciting opportunity for us to provide the very latest in simulation technology for our medical students, doctors, nurses, other healthcare professionals and indeed all hospital staff.
“We already have a Clinical Skills Lab and Dental Skills Lab which have been heavily used for many years but this is less high tech and there is a limit to the sort of training we can do in it.
“New technologies are now available and the new suite means we can take full advantage of them. It will also increase our training capacity.
“It is known as a high fidelity suite which means it has full size computerised manikins which can be used by teams of staff to tackle simulated emergencies such as heart attacks, sepsis or other acute clinical conditions.”
Medical Education Manager Becky Dioh said: “Staff involved in a simulated emergency will be observed by their tutors who are in an adjacent control room which has one-way glass.
“This means we can study exactly how the team treat the patient and what they say and do. This enables us to provide individuals with invaluable feedback on their performance.
“It is not just about the mechanics of doing things. In many ways the manikins are treated like real-life patients so we are looking at how staff explain and communicate with them, respect their privacy and dignity and work as a team.”
Kettering General Hospital’s Medical Director, Prof Andrew Chilton, said: “By providing very realistic scenarios we can enable medical students, doctors in training, nurses and other health professionals, the opportunities to practice working in difficult situations completely safely.
“This is very important. It will mean when doctors and nurses are faced with real situations for the first time they will already have experience of dealing with those scenarios as a simulation and know exactly what must be done and what is expected from them as part of a team.
“It will improve our staff training and improve patient safety.”
Work began on the Simulation Suite in April 2018 with the finishing touches to the development completed in November. It has been developed in collaboration with Health Education England and Leicester Medical School.