DeSales Debuts State-of-the-Art Simulation Manikins
Inside the Healthcare Simulation Center, three physician assistant students huddled around their patient as she yelled in pain.
“One more push, Victoria,” they told her.
Minutes later, the new mother thanked the students as they placed the baby girl beside her.
Simulating a live birth is just one of the countless real-life scenarios health-care students at DeSales can experience using Victoria and two other state-of-the-art simulation manikins from Gaumard Scientific.
The center officially debuted the manikins to the campus community with a series of demonstrations. Each manikin is equipped with a speaker in the back of its throat and comes with preloaded, generic statements.
“We interact in real time with the students. So while the students may walk in seeing a plastic, human-shaped computer lying on the bed, after a couple of minutes interacting with that manikin the same way they would with a person, they buy in. The more real we can make that situation, the more they get out of the experience.”
Victoria S2200 is a full-sized obstetrical and gynecological manikin that can simulate any type of birth from the normal to complex, including breech, a crash C-section, and postpartum hemorrhage.
“Having Victoria as a simulator has been really nice because this was the first baby that I got to deliver technically,” says Riley Slate, a second-year PA student. “Once I got onto my rotation, I helped deliver over 36 babies. This was my introduction into that world.”
HAL S3201—a full-sized adult manikin—can change genders and simulate a variety of situations, including different breath sounds and pupillary states. Faculty members can even replicate a heart attack by choosing which blood vessel to occlude and can generate an EKG consistent with the scenario. During the demonstration, HAL took on the role of a tax preparer suffering from stress and chest pain.
“By having these sim patients, we’re allowed to practice real-life scenarios before we actually go into the hospital, which is a huge benefit,” says Allison Nicinski, a sophomore nursing major. “It’s okay to make mistakes and that’s how you learn best, I think. So that’s extremely helpful.”
Pediatric HAL S2225—billed as the world’s most advanced pediatric patient simulator—has the most functionality of the three new manikins. It has horizontal head movement, can look angry or upset, can bleed or receive fluids from an IV, and even recognize and react to different drugs. Students can also take a blood sugar or fingertip pulse oximetry reading.
“Gaumard provides the best pediatric simulator on the market to date and we are the only one in eastern Pennsylvania that has it,” says Melissa Carabba, assistant director of the center. “They’re head and shoulders above any other company that provides a pediatric simulator.”
For more photos of the event, visit our Flickr album.