Dummy teen set to help Starship staff save lives

Staff can practise on Sim Teen in their usual teams. Photo / Natalie Slade

A breathing, talking and bleeding computer-driven dummy that can cry, choke, be male or female, with a pulse and lips that can turn blue, has just been acquired by the Starship children's hospital in Auckland.

The hospital said the "Sim Teen" was an invaluable tool that would help staff be better prepared to manage complex traumas and save lives.

The clinical director of the Children's Emergency Department, Dr Mike Shepherd, said the Sim Teen was "incredibly realistic" and was essential for on-going staff training.

The figure is the size of an average teenager and can be defibrillated. Routine and invasive monitoring units can be applied and IV fluids and drugs administered.

It is also the first totally wireless, 3G model that can be transported around the hospital so staff can practise on it in their usual busy clinical environments.

All functions are controlled and monitored by the supervising medical staff in an adjoining room.

"It will make experienced and highly skilled professionals better at what they do ... it's really becoming the gold standard for training experienced professionals," Dr Shepherd said.

One of the training scenarios that the Sim Teen would be used for was a youth who had been in a car crash.

"When they present to the Emergency Department a number of different teams are involved - the Emergency Department team, the Intensive Care team, the surgeons - there's a lot of people involved.

"And [the patient] can have a series of different injuries, some of which are relatively unusual that you don't see that often."

In that situation, the Sim Teen would be used to train staff how to diagnose each problem and how to manage that patient's condition, Dr Shepherd said.

"And procedures that we do infrequently, people can get to practise on them in real time and get skilled. But also it's about how the team works in that environment as well."

In March 2010, the Starship bought a Sim Baby, which Dr Shepherd said was also an invaluable tool.

The acquisition of the Sim Teen has meant that staff can practise for scenarios with the hospital's patients from newborn babies through to teenagers.

The Sim Teen was bought thanks to two donations through Guardian Trust - $100,000 from the Wilson and Sweet Charitable Trust and $27,192 fromthe Margaret Rix Trott Charitable Trust.