ON CAMPUS: Loyalist hosts simulation training
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Just as pilots go through simulator training to know how to handle a plane crash, registered nurses and respiratory therapists with Quinte Health Care practise critical care scenarios to help save lives.
As part of Quinte Health Care (QHC) developing a new program — the Critical Care Response Team (CCRT) — 30 experienced registered nurses (RN) and respiratory therapists (RT) enhanced their skills in the management of critical care situations during four training sessions hosted at Loyalist College on June 23, 25 and July 22, 29.
Tena Sheridan, a Registered Nurse with the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and CCRT Co-Project Lead at QHC, took the last group of critical care staff — two RTs and three RNs, supervised by two Quinte Health Care instructors — to Loyalist’s state-of-the-art Human Simulation Lab on July 29 to practise critical care response, patient assessment and triage decision-making.
Sheridan said this CCRT course is based upon a training course developed by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
“This new program (CCRT) is about having an ICU nurse and a respiratory therapist respond to any concerns the ward nurses may have about any of their patients,” she said. “We will go to the bedside should the nurse need us and provide critical care services. The concept is taking the critical care from within the walls of ICU and taking it outside to the bedside, managing the patient’s needs and providing some interventions.”
One of the goals behind the development of QHC’s CCRT is for critical care staff to provide support to the primary nurse who has recognized subtle to acute deterioration in the patient in order to prevent a “Code Blue”, an emergency code used to indicate a patient requiring immediate resuscitation, most often as a result of respiratory or cardiac arrest.
“Research has shown that there were some subtle changes before that Code Blue happened and if there was a team that addressed those needs, and the nurse was vigilant about it, we could prevent a Code Blue and perhaps save someone’s life,” added Sheridan.
In 2008, QHC partnered with Loyalist Human Simulation Lab staff to implement a simulation-based training component for their new graduate internship program. In early 2015, CCRT Project Leads at QHC Sarah Corkey, Emma Holmes and Tena Sheridan asked Loyalist’s Simulation Specialists Cindy Potter and Bethany Jones to participate in the implementation of the simulation component for the CCRT course.
“Every scenario played out differently. Thanks to our human simulator, each CCRT team performed a series of actions such as administering frontline medications, starting Intravenous Therapy (IV) and preparing for intubation when necessary, in response to the diagnosis of an acute medical condition they were assigned to,” explained Bethany Jones of the School of Health, Human and Justice Studies at Loyalist.
“Our Human Simulation Lab is recognized provincially, nationally and internationally for its technical advances, equipment and expertise in human simulation education.”
Sheridan noted QHC has purchased its own simulation manikin recently so that CCRT staff can keep training through similar simulation-based scenarios.
“We will probably look to use the expertise of Ms. Jones and Ms. Potter in setting up our simulation manikin,” she said.
Part of QHC’s CCRT program deals with crisis resource management. On July 29, critical care staff like RN and Loyalist graduate Stephanie Park practised certain situations that she and her colleagues at BGH may encounter while at the bedside.
“Airplane pilots go through extensive training in their simulators. It’s not a good idea to learn how to deal with a crash during an actual crash,” added Sheridan.
Park graduated from the Brock-Loyalist Collaborative Baccalaureate Nursing program in June 2012 and joined the ICU team at QHC one month later.
“The objective of this course is also about taking a leadership role,” said Park. “If something goes wrong on another floor in the hospital, they will page this team (CCRT) and then we’ll go to see what we can do to help.”
In March 2015 — for the second consecutive time — the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing Accreditation Bureau awarded a seven-year accreditation status to the Brock-Loyalist Collaborative Baccalaureate Nursing program. In Ontario, across Canada and abroad, there is a strong demand for registered nurses. Loyalist graduates are well prepared to write the registration examination to become registered members of the College of Nurses of Ontario.
For more information on admission requirements and/or to apply visit: loyalistcollege.com.