How anaesthesiologists manage postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is one of the major factors defining its outcome. This is a crucial moment when a happy family occasion becomes a life-or-death emergency. Knowing what to do and how to do it will make the difference, but if you have never experienced this situation before how do you learn? Now is not the time to practice: a mother's life depends on what you do in that moment, so you need to have gained some competence beforehand. This is a classic indication for practicing in the safety of clinical simulation.
The team at CIME, working with the Department of Anaesthesiology arranged a simulation course for their residents entitled "Anaesthesia Management of PPH with Placenta Previa". This is a situation where you can anticipate blood loss because the placenta needs to detach as the baby is being born otherwise it will block the birth canal. The course was aimed to equip learners with the knowledge, skills and experience of dealing with massive blood loss should it occur. This was a complex scenario in two stages: labour ward and OR. Fidelity was provided by the high quality of the simulated environments and simulators, which together with a realistic story-line encouraged residents to 'suspend disbelief' and to treat this as a real situation. As such, their performances were authentic giving the residents themselves and their faculty opportunities to identify strengths and areas for improvement. Video stimulated recall, through our debriefing system, was an additional cue for participants to identify learning opportunities.
This course is envisaged to improve clinical outcomes, by reducing the likelihood of medical error and by achieving competency in response to obstetrics bleeding emergencies. It will also help learners in acquiring a confident approach in stressful situations all of which will eventually help to improve the safety of obstetrics patients and their health outcomes.
How anaesthesiologists manage postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is one of the major factors defining its outcome. This is a crucial moment when a happy family occasion becomes a life-or-death emergency. Knowing what to do and how to do it will make the difference, but if you have never experienced this situation before how do you learn? Now is not the time to practice: a mother's life depends on what you do in that moment, so you need to have gained some competence beforehand. This is a classic indication for practicing in the safety of clinical simulation.
The team at CIME, working with the Department of Anaesthesiology arranged a simulation course for their residents entitled "Anaesthesia Management of PPH with Placenta Previa". This is a situation where you can anticipate blood loss because the placenta needs to detach as the baby is being born otherwise it will block the birth canal. The course was aimed to equip learners with the knowledge, skills and experience of dealing with massive blood loss should it occur. This was a complex scenario in two stages: labour ward and OR. Fidelity was provided by the high quality of the simulated environments and simulators, which together with a realistic story-line encouraged residents to 'suspend disbelief' and to treat this as a real situation. As such, their performances were authentic giving the residents themselves and their faculty opportunities to identify strengths and areas for improvement. Video stimulated recall, through our debriefing system, was an additional cue for participants to identify learning opportunities.
This course is envisaged to improve clinical outcomes, by reducing the likelihood of medical error and by achieving competency in response to obstetrics bleeding emergencies. It will also help learners in acquiring a confident approach in stressful situations all of which will eventually help to improve the safety of obstetrics patients and their health outcomes.