As CRANAplus has embraced the poten­tial of increased online learn­ing and enhanced its peo­ple pow­er, we have at the same time inves­ti­gat­ed and invest­ed in new train­ing equip­ment to make the learn­ing expe­ri­ence at our cours­es even more immer­sive and the acquired skills even more applic­a­ble in a real-world context.

iSim­u­late

The iSim­u­late REALITi360 forms the cen­tre­piece of our updat­ed edu­ca­tion equip­ment inventory. 

Each iSim­u­late kit fea­tures two iPads. The facilitator’s iPad con­trols a sim­u­lat­ed sce­nario; they can deter­mine how the vitals like blood pres­sure and heart rhythm, and even audi­ble symp­toms like nau­sea, present through the participant’s iPad, which mim­ics a brand­ed monitor/​defibrillator inter­face of choice.

A dynam­ic turn of events can unfold at the facilitator’s choos­ing. The sim­u­lat­ed patient may present as healthy, alert and talk­ing one minute, before rapid­ly dete­ri­o­rat­ing the next.

The participant’s iPad is housed inside a real­is­tic patient mon­i­tor cas­ing and is oper­at­ed by the par­tic­i­pant in response to the sce­nario and changes intro­duced by the facil­i­ta­tor. The iSim­u­late requires par­tic­i­pants to make quick deci­sions and to fol­low the pri­ma­ry sur­vey process they have learned/​revised to man­age life threats in patients. Using this equip­ment, the fate of the patient is in the participant’s hands, and the participant’s deci­sions and respons­es can be close­ly mon­i­tored by the facilitator.

CRANAplus is explor­ing fur­ther learn­ing poten­tial in the roll-out of iSimulate’s oth­er fea­tures, includ­ing CTG with­in mater­ni­ty edu­ca­tion and ven­ti­la­tors with­in emer­gency training.

VATA Venepunc­ture Train­ing Aids

CRANAplus has also recent­ly acquired VATA Venepunc­ture Train­ing Aids to com­ple­ment the tra­di­tion­al bulki­er sys­tem of dum­my arms. Pop­u­lar in Amer­i­ca, this sys­tem of intra­venous can­nu­la train­ing has remained hard to access in Aus­tralia — until now. The new equip­ment has intro­duced sev­er­al ben­e­fits, says CRANAplus Clin­i­cal Equip­ment Spe­cial­ist, Tom Quinn.

“The sim­u­lat­ed feel of the vein is impres­sive, and the sim­plic­i­ty of oper­a­tion is great,” Tom says. ​“We par­tic­u­lar­ly appre­ci­ate the porta­bil­i­ty of the equip­ment too, as the edu­ca­tion and train­ing we deliv­er to the health work­force is local. So far, the VATA Train­ing Aid has proven quite rugged, sur­viv­ing the equip­ment trans­port jour­ney to some very remote des­ti­na­tions like Man­ingri­da in North­ern Territory.”

More to come

iSim­u­late and VATA train­ing aids are just two exam­ples from a long list of equip­ment enhance­ments occur­ring across the organ­i­sa­tion. The list also includes PROMPT birth sim­u­la­tors for post­par­tum haem­or­rhage assess­ment with­in MEC cours­es and mil­i­tary-grade water- and dust­proof Pel­i­can cas­es for trans­port­ing gear secure­ly across rough ter­rain, right down to small-scale essen­tials, like box­es of gloves.

The changes reflect the hard work of the Edu­ca­tion team, who are con­stant­ly inves­ti­gat­ing new tech­nolo­gies and mon­i­tor­ing inno­va­tions with­in the sim­u­la­tion space. As it hap­pens, CRANAplus is keep­ing a keen eye on aug­ment­ed real­i­ty tech­nol­o­gy, and while Tom says it isn’t quite there yet, he expects to see it emerg­ing as a key ele­ment of cours­es in the future.