When staff members in Labor and Delivery were preparing for their annual teamwork training and emergency drills, they wanted to practice in the most realistic environment possible. This year, they found just the place as they partnered with Cox College to train at the Nursing Resource Center.
In four sessions over three days, the L&D nurses and staff ran through several emergency scenarios – everything from a postpartum hemorrhage and a neonatal code to a maternal code and a fire in the operating room.
The training is part of a Joint Commission requirement that calls for staff to have regular practice with emergency scenarios, a key component in patient safety.
“The training allows staff to become adept at managing situations like these,” says L&D nurse Debbie Burgess. “This really helps build confidence in our ability to handle an event like this on the unit.”
For each of the scenarios, team members are presented with a history on the “patient” and they manage the situation just as they would in real life.
The training covers everything from basic clinical skills (washing hands and patient identification) to critical decision-making and complex technical skills. The exercises are also a chance to improve communication skills and work on overall teamwork.
Each clinical simulation is followed by a debriefing in which the participants discuss what was learned, what went well and what needs more practice.
“The simulations are amazing,” Burgess says. “The simulator bleeds when you start an IV and everything they prepared was very realistic – the staff really responded to that.”
“People loved it, I haven’t heard one negative comment about it,” says Cozi Bagley, an instructor at Cox College.
In years past, staff had trained on the unit with a staff member posing as a patient. Burgess says the simulations in the resource center allowed for a greater variety of scenarios and they were a great alternative.
“It can be harder to act like a scenario is real when the patient is a co-worker,” she says.
“This let everyone really get into it.”
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