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Staff at more than 30 regional hospitals throughout Ontario will receive emergency paediatric training through a hands-on program, which one doctor says will help fill a healthcare gap in the province.
The Paediatric Regional Outreach Program (PROP) uses lifelike mannequins to simulate high-stakes medical situations that involve children. That’s necessary at small community hospitals, according to paediatric emergency physician Dr. Gurinder Sangha.
“Seeing a childhood emergency is not an everyday occurrence for them, so you can imagine that’s a very stressful experience,” Sangha told CBC’s Afternoon Drive.
“We’re trying to bridge that gap. A lot of resources are consolidated at larger centres and large academic centres,” he explained. “The majority of children are going to present to their nearest emergency department, so we want to ensure teams in each of the regional centres is as well prepared as they can be to deal with those issues.”
Sangha, who is also PROP’s simulation program lead, travels with a team of other London Health Sciences Centre ’s children’s hospital staff to centres throughout the province.
They provide the training directly at hospitals so trainees are in a realistic setting and using their own equipment.
PROP training involves lifelike mannequins that can simulate emergency medical situations. Staff are able to hook the mannequin up to real machines to rehearse treating a sick patient. (Submitted by Celine Zadorsky)
Infant, toddler and child mannequins are programmed to mimic emergency situations such as seizures or low oxygen levels. Staff can hook the mannequins up to real monitors and infusion pumps to rehearse how they would treat a patient.
“Being able to provide that type of training – and mimicking the situation, stress and emotional response that goes with it — really allows us to talk about knowledge, and also some of those teamwork and crisis resource management skills,” Sangha said.
“Long-term outcomes are very much tied to how quickly and how efficiently we’re able to provide that care,” Sangha said, adding that care must last until children are transferred to a centre like a big-city children’s hospital.
So far, the PROP team has visited hospitals in Leamington, Woodstock, Stratford, Strathroy and Goderich. Sangha said the goal is to reach 33 hospitals across Ontario.
“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. People are hoping we can come back,” he said.