Mesa hospital can learn a lot from a dummy
By Ed Taylor
East Valley Tribune
MESA, Ariz. (Aug. 24, 2009) --The patient lies flat on his back on a bed in the intensive care unit and appears to be gasping for breath, his chest heaving up and down.
“I don’t feel well,” he wheezes.
It seems to be a scenario that could occur in any ICU. But there’s something different about this patient: he isn’t alive. In fact, he isn’t even human. He’s a dummy, or mannequin as officials at the new Banner Simulation Medical Center prefer to all him.
In fact, there’s a whole roomful of high-tech mannequins at the $11 million simulation center in Mesa. In addition to breathing and talking, they can cough, bleed, blink, show a pulse, have heart attacks or strokes, even give birth. Intravenous tubes can be inserted into their arms, catheters can drain fluid from their bladders.
The idea is that new nurses and other health care practitioners working for Banner Health can gain increased experience in life-like situations using computer-controlled mannequins that can be programmed to mimic many conditions and scenarios.
“As the learner does things, the computer senses it and causes the patient to react,” said Carol Noe, Banner’s director of simulation innovation.
