Mannequin Medicine - a Test For the Real Deal

HOUSTON - Nurses and doctors go through years of training before they take care of patients.

Now at Texas Children's Hospital, they're taking it beyond the books by undergoing state-of-the art training from the only pediatric simulation center in Texas.

Babies and children's lives are on the line everyday. That's why medical workers at Texas Children's Hospital work side-by-side to do more than heal.

"I believe we are saving lives by training our health care providers to do a better job", exclaimed Dr. Jennifer Arnold, the Medical Director of the Simulation Center at Texas Children's.

Dr. Arnold says the amazing equipment wasn't even an option during her time as a medical student or resident.

"During my fellowship, it started to become available and that's where I started to learn simulation. I became very interested very early on and found my niche in this field", she explained.

She introduced us to the mannequins that are incredibly similar to human beings.

"They have pulses, they breathe, they turn blue if they're not breathing well, they have heartbeats and heart sounds that you can listen to. They have lung signs and can go into respiratory distress", explains Dr. Arnold.

The mannequins even cry and talk, and one of them delivers babies. They've nicknamed her "Noel", and she has already delivered 60 babies since the opened the simulation center a few months ago.

"In the short time since we've been open, we've been fortunate to have 300 simulations to train 1000 health care providers here at the hospital in resuscitation and high risk situations", says Kelly Wallin, who is the Assistant Director for the Simulation Center.

The hospital hopes this specialized training will help cut down on medical errors. Dr. Arnold says 70-percent of medical errors happen because of communication problems.

"We're part of the team that has investigated "near misses" and the factors that contribute to medical errors and what gets in the way of us delivering the most excellent care we can possibly deliver. A major portion of our plan is to work with those scenarios in improvement in what causes errors", said Kelly.

It also helps prepare workers with proper bedside manners and medical training in general.

Most doctors here say within five minutes of training, they forget it's a mannequin they're working on.

"I definitely believe that simulation is very powerful. It's an immersive training experience!", exclaimed Dr. Arnold .

After the simulation exercise, medical workers go into a "debriefing" and watch how they handled the situation on video.

This helps them learn from their own mistakes and realize they should keep doing what they're getting right.

You'll find out more about this helpful training tool at:
http://bit.ly/simulationcenter