Emergency-surgery simulation teaches teamwork for residents
Dr. Brianne Plante stood a few feet back from the operating table. The patient had just delivered a baby by a cesarean section, but was bleeding.
“See if you can identify where the bleeding is coming from,” said Plante, an obstetrician-gynecologist with Avina Women’s Care and Ohiohealth Riverside Methodist Hospital.
This was not your ordinary surgery; the patient was a mannequin with 3D-printed organs. Using a 3D printer makes the organs look realistic, said Dr. Brad Gable, Ohiohealth’s system medical director for simulation.
“It looks real, it feels real,” he said.
A group of OB-GYN, general surgery and anesthesia residents took part in the emergency C-section and liver-hemorrhage simulation Tuesday to learn how to better work together as a team.
“Typically in our silos, we’re in charge. And so when we come together, we have to figure out who’s in charge at what point in time,” said Dr. Emily Hamburg-shields, an obstetrician resident at Ohiohealth.
Medical schools and health systems in Ohio and across the country are increasingly turning to simulations and the virtual world to plunge safely into life-ordeath scenarios, peel away layers of human anatomy or walk through complex procedures.
“Simulation is a really important part of our education because in addition to developing skill sets, it also helps relieve anxiety,” Hamburg-shields said.
Simulations are particularly helpful in preparing residents for real-life situations, Gable said.
“It’s one thing to read (about surgery) in a book or watch a Youtube video,” Gable said. “It’s quite another to put your hands in it and on it and talk to your colleagues about managing it.”
Tuesday’s simulation was based on a real patient’s case. She had arrived at the emergency room last year after passing out at home, Plante said. Her vital signs were abnormal, and she was in pain.
The obstetrics team was called to evaluate her and saw signs of fetal distress, so they moved the patient to an operating room and delivered the baby through an emergency C-section, Plante said.
The patient was bleeding profusely outside the uterus, so the obstetrics residents called in a team of general surgeons who correctly identified that the blood was coming from a liver hemorrhage.
“Repetition always makes for a better physician,” Plante said. “The more you’ve done something, the more you’ve handled something, the more confident you feel in managing that situation.”
Ohiohealth recorded Tuesday’s simulation so that residents who work the night shift or in the intensive-care unit also can learn from the training. Between 40 and 50 residents in obstetrics and general surgery will see the simulation, Gable said.
“This is a safe learning environment; there’s no grading or anything like that,” he said. “This is just an opportunity to get better so, when this happens in real life, we provide the best care possible to our patients.”