Of the College Patient Simulation Laboratory the Avedisian Hall houses seven of the realistic, animated mannequins that stand like real patients. The mannequins, which range in “age” from infants to adult men and women, give students the opportunity to practice with patients at different stages of the life span. After recently upgrading the baby simulator, lab directors Clinton Chichester and Amanda Chichester offered the older model that was still functional to University of Cape Coast School of Pharmacy in Ghana, with whom they had developed a relationship when faculty and students visited URI last semester.
“He was over the moon about the offer,” Clinton Chichester said. βGetting a simulator like this is difficult. they are not available there. We just decided it would be nice to donate the old simulator to a school that needs this technology. We trained them to use the simulator when they were here. There were a few things that needed to be fixed before we shipped it, which we did. The baby is now ready to go on his journey to Ghana.”
The simulators, which cost about $60,000, depending on the model, give students hands-on practice in direct patient care. Connected to a computer, as well as all the monitors and equipment normally found in a hospital room, the mannequins mimic real patients, with the ability to breathe, talk, cry, sweat and even bleed. Monitors broadcast vital signs, and the computer can simulate medical conditions, such as an opioid overdose, that students must respond to in real time.
The mannequin, a realistic representation of a three- to six-month-old infant, helps students prepare to interact with the most vulnerable patients in a safe environment. The baby simulator enables the implementation of critical care interventions, including infant CPR, airway management, drug administration and defibrillation, among others.
Pharmacists, who are increasingly directly involved in critical patient care, must make decisions quickly, under the most stressful conditions, and be able to respond immediately if medications do not have the desired effect. It’s one thing to plan a course of treatment in advance. It is quite another to make the critical call when the patient’s life hangs in the balance. There is simply no way for pharmacy students to know how they will respond when faced with such an emergency unless they are able to practice on mannequins.
“We simulate a hospital environment and put students in a situation where they have to think on their feet,” Clinton Chichester said. βThey learn how to provide treatment, but also how to behave, how to deal with patients on a personal level, how to deal with parents. They don’t have a lot of experience dealing with babies at all, so this is something unique.”