Page 10 - ANZCP Gazette-August-Booklet

I wasn’t going to submit a formal report with the hands-on workshop simulations being on hold due to COVID-19, but then I realized the error in my thinking! This, in fact, may be the perfect time to think about simulation and what we could do in our own unit to improve our skills and competency.
Currently we are all experiencing strange times, be it lockdown, with either very busy clinical workloads or periods of very little work. Holidays may have been cancelled, no one has attended a conference for a while and we are left with just Zoom webinars.
Perfusionists are practical, hands-on clinicians, so maybe we all need to move away from the computer and run some low fidelity simulations within our groups – which could be fun! ‘Yeah right’ you are all thinking, but it’s a perfect time to come together as a team and look at your protocols and checklists – see if they work or need be updated, practice some oxygenator change outs, pump failures and gas failures
Every HLM, IABP, ECMO machine and VAD device is also an in-situ simulator. And each pump room, OR or ICU room
is a simulation lab in waiting. Add your imagination with a few basic educational principles of simulations, and you are ready to simulate.
For example within a team experience, who can change out an oxygenator the fastest, and can you improve your own times? Is your protocol and all the components you need available? As a group coming together to practise these tasks, consider improved ways that may not have been thought of before. The simulations should also include why and when you would actually change an oxygenator out.
Set up dummy circuits and pumps with mistakes, and see if your colleagues can pick up the errors quickly and also confirm that your checklist is appropriate.
So go find a pump, a simple tubing circuit and a bucket, and practice those emergency drills that you never have time to do regularly.
SIMULATION REPORT
Jane Ottens CCP, FANZCP
AUTOTRANSFUSION COURSE REPORT
Casey Edwards CCP, FANZCP
It is with great excitement that I report to you our progress with the Autotransfusion Course. It has been a busy and exciting year so far and we hope you will share our enthusiasm regarding the future direction of this course.
Our primary objective in 2020 has been to transition the Autotransfusion course from an email-based delivery system to an online learning platform, where students will log on to a portal and download their content each week. Many of you may already be familiar with ‘Moodle’ – which is the well- established and popular platform we have chosen to adopt. In preparation for this major change, the course’s academic content has been revised and refreshed by Hannah Lea, Jessica Cantrick and myself, under the expert guidance of the ABCP. We have employed PreFlight Digital Strategy [a web design and development business based in Melbourne – Ed.] to assist us with the technical aspects of this project.
Transitioning to Moodle offers us several key advantages. Firstly, improved student experience, professionalism and marketability. As the course becomes more modern, the end- user experience will be enhanced by the improved quality of the product. Students will have a more logical, flowing format to study from and a single access point for all their required information. The visual presentation of the material will also be enhanced by experts in graphic design. We intend to restructure the course fees once the redevelopment is complete,
so that the cost more accurately reflects the value of the content offered. This in turn will benefit the college.
We are also excited about having greater protection for our intellectual property. At present, emailing PowerPoint presentations to our students means that text can readily be copied, edited and redistributed without our knowledge. This risk will be greatly reduced using Moodle.
Finally, the administrative burden of running the course will be significantly decreased. Without weekly emails to send and multiple-choice exams to mark by hand, future course coordinators will have more time to focus on progressive projects that improve, expand and promote the course.
At present Jessica Cantrick and I manage the Autotransfusion Course. However, there is always work available to be done and the course would benefit from new perspectives and fresh ideas. If you want to contribute to the ANZCP in a very tangible and satisfying way, please get in touch with us. We would be very grateful for your assistance and no amount of time is too small to offer.
We look forward to sharing a finished product with you soon and encourage you to promote the Autotransfusion Course to any interested staff in your own hospitals.
7 SEPTEMBER 2020 | www.anzcp.org