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How to reach rural communities with obstetric simulation training

Customer Story

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University Hospital in San Antonio

Texas, USA

About

University Hospital in San Antonio is a leading teaching hospital. The Perinatal Outreach Program supports community hospitals in the surrounding area of South Texas with multidisciplinary simulation training.

"MamaBirthie has been absolutely perfect for our program, particularly the shoulder dystocia component."

The Solution

Making simulation simple and accessible

To train healthcare providers in rural community hospitals across South and Central Texas, the team at the University Hospital in San Antonio started a simulation outreach program.  The Perinatal Outreach Program was developed to improve the quality and standardization of care, to practice skills in management of shoulder dystocia, PPH and pre-eclampsia, and to improve teamwork and communication. However, the solution needed had to be easy to use, easily portable, and cost effective.

Did You Know?

Shoulder dystocia happens in about 1 in every 200 births. It is often neither preventable nor predictable. It can deprive the baby of oxygen, leading to brain damage or death and can cause injuries including fractures of the baby's arm or shoulder or damage to the nerves resulting in a brachial plexus injury. Shoulder dystocia can also lead to complications for the mother, including tears or hemorrhage, so it is important that maternity teams can identify and manage it quickly and efficiently.

A perfect combination of skills and realism

The goal was to create a highly realistic experience, at the same time, provide the opportunity to learn on an ongoing basis as the simulation progressed. Using MamaBirthie to train for skills together with a standardized patient to make the simulation feel realistic was an integral part of the program.

 

Keep the simulation simple with MamaBirthie and a standardized patient and practice the process, and your participants will get a lot out of it.

Dr Alejandro Gonzalez, MD, FAAP Simulation Consultant

Because standardized patients can verbalize the symptoms they are experiencing, they are useful for gathering patient history and diagnosing symptoms. By using body language to convey information, healthcare professionals are required to be highly observant and hone their communication skills. In addition, this combined approach of using MamaBirthie with a standardized patient, enabled the patient to be moved into different positions to practice specialized maneuvers to manipulate the position of the baby such as McRoberts and Gaskin techniques.

"We have this opportunity where the participants get a chance to practice, to try again and ultimately to do it 100% correctly, and I think that gets hard-wired."

There’s just this moment in there where they suddenly become completely engaged and when you get to the debriefing point you really see them being able to say they know what to do and they truly feel empowered and prepared.

Allison Moreno, BSN, RSC-OB Maternal Fetal Transport Team Coordinator, Outreach Simulation Specialist, Labor & Delivery Nurse

Looking forward

Helping rural communities train themselves

Using a mobile, accessible, cost effective low-fidelity simulator like MamaBirthie together with a standardized patient and applying the RCDP methodology, enables simulation to be adaptable and available to all healthcare providers, wherever they are.

My dream is to have rural hospitals to have their own programs for obstetric simulations.

Dolores Perry, MSN, RSC-OB Perinatal Educator

Key Takeaways

Practice makes perfect


RCDP method of learning enables participants to practice over and over

Create a realistic environment


Standardized patient adds realism and engagement

Choose the right tools


MamaBirthie meets the need for the education method and use with standardized patient

Watch the full video

Thanks to the team at University Hospital in San Antonio for sharing their story

 

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www.universityhealthsystem.com

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Train essential birthing maneuvers while maintaining respectful maternity care. Train essential birthing maneuvers while maintaining respectful maternity care.

MamaBirthie

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Get the best out of your simulation by combining SimMom and MamaBirthie. Put together in one impactful simulation... Get the best out of your simulation by combining SimMom and MamaBirthie. Put together in one impactful simulation toolkit, this solution can be used at different stages of the Circle of Learning to support a complete learning experience....

Reference

* Maternal deaths and mortality rates by state, 2018-2021. CDC. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/maternal-mortality/mmr-2018-2021-state-data.pdf