Mesa hospital can learn a lot from a dummy

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 employees at the new Banner Simulation Medical Center prefer to call 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 lifelike 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.

But if mistakes are made, the results aren't catastrophic.

Among the scenarios that can be simulated are trauma wounds, pulmonary problems, birth-related problems, seizures and managing a full load of patients on a late-night shift, Noe said.

To create an added dose of realism, planners are even looking to have instructors play grieving or hysterical family members. That would give personnel practice in dealing with emotional situations, including that worst of all tasks - informing family and friends the patient has died.

As resident nurses go through their procedures, their actions are monitored and captured via video and computer systems. Later, the events can be analyzed and performances graded. Errors are OK so lessons can be learned before the medical personnel go into the real world.

Banner officials believe their simulation center is the largest of its kind in the nation. In addition to the intensive care unit, it contains an emergency department, two operating rooms with virtual-operation capabilities, a neonatal care center and an eight-bed recovery wing - a complete virtual hospital.

Located in the former Banner Mesa hospital at Country Club Drive and Brown Road, the nearly completed 55,000-square-foot simulation center is in the final stages of being set up. The first classes are expected to begin in late September, Noe said.

Nurse educators programming equipment in the virtual ICU last week were ecstatic about its education possibilities.

"This is one of the most amazing things I've been a part of," said Mary Larson, an clinical educator with Banner Health for 11 years and a nursing professor at Mesa Community College. "This will be so valuable to a new graduate. ... I truly believe it will reduce errors."

Denielle Headley, another nurse educator, said instructors are "figuring out ways to make things as realistic as possible," adding "this is unlike anything I've seen."

Banner already operated much smaller simulation labs at Baywood Medical Center in east Mesa and Good Samaritan in Phoenix but found an opportunity to expand the concept when space became available with the closing of the Mesa hospital, Noe said.

Initially the Mesa center will focus on training new-hire nurses, but it could be expanded later to hone the skills of physicians, therapists and other health care workers.

The classes, which will last about two weeks, are in addition to the training students receive to become registered nurses, Noe said.

"All the new hires will have to go through it," she said. "We're hoping it will be an amenity that will attract people who will want to work here (for Banner Health)."

The simulation hospital will be staffed by 22 clinical experts who will conduct classes and grade students, she said.