Simulation lab offers practice for real-life emergencies

CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) — The patients at a new training lab for UPMC Western Maryland staff can’t draw a breath, though it might seem like they can by the rise and fall of their chests.

The hospital recently opened up its new simulation lab, where nursing staff will have opportunities to practice for real-life emergencies on three “manikins,” specialized, life-like dummies that allow for hands-on practice for emergency situations that can otherwise be difficult to attain. The lab has simulations of a pregnant woman, an adult man and an infant that can all breathe, move their eyes and even experience convincing imitations of medical emergencies.

The lab is a satellite simulation center for the Winter Institute for Simulation, Education and Research, or WISER, which is part of UPMC and has 11 centers total. Thomas Dongilli, WISER’s director of operations, said the labs help make for safer hospitals.

“We can actually impact the way that hospitals and systems work” through use of the simulations for practice, Dongilli said, as the lifelike qualities of the manikins help nurses feel as if they are practicing on a live patient, which is critical.

The pregnant manikin — who staff have nicknamed “Anita Push” — can help staff practice delivering babies safely, as well as prepare them for other emergency situations like hemorrhaging, high blood pressure and seizures.

“When the staff are orienting up on labor and delivery or postpartum, you hope that they get to experience something like that when they’re with their preceptors, but not always,” said Elizabeth Barnhart, the hospital’s director of organizational development. “They would get to practice that here, and move through the steps of stopping the hemorrhage and all of the things that the protocol calls for.”

“It’s a safe...