LOW-TECH SETUP
You don’t need a simulation lab.
Our setup fit in a resuscitation room - because it was the resuscitation room.
Basic mannequin.
iPad.
iPhone.
SimMon.
Your actual monitor and crash cart.
Expired consumables when appropriate.
Two facilitators.
Fidelity happens where it matters.
The room is real.
The equipment is real.
The team is real.
The decisions are real.
The mannequin doesn't need to be.
The same setup, in practice.
In-situ simulation in the Espanola ED resuscitation bay.
Our setup
Mannequin
A basic resuscitation mannequin is enough. Ours allows CPR, airway management and common procedures.
Patient monitor
We run SimMon on an iPad positioned near the real bedside monitor.
Controller
One facilitator controls the monitor from an iPhone.
Equipment
Use the department's actual crash cart, defibrillator, airway equipment and other equipment whenever practical.
Consumables
Expired IV tubing, airway supplies and similar materials can make hands-on practice possible without wasting clinical stock. Follow your own hospital's policies.
Investigations
ECGs, laboratory results and imaging can simply be printed and handed to the team when requested.
Don’t simulate what you can use for real.
Use the real room.
Open the real drawer.
Find the real pacing cable.
Wheel over the real ventilator.
Ask someone to retrieve the real piece of equipment.
The friction is information.
What the facilitators actually do
One drives the patient.
Changes vitals, advances the case, answers clinical questions and provides findings the mannequin cannot reproduce.
One watches the room.
Observes communication, equipment use, nursing workflow and the little operational problems that would otherwise be missed.
Both debrief.
Use the room you already have.
The Espanola ED resuscitation bay right after an in-situ simulation.
That’s enough.
You can add task trainers, moulage, fancy mannequins and audiovisual systems later.
You don't need them to start.
A believable problem in the real clinical environment is already a powerful simulation.