Hospital simulates childbirth emergency
Robert Stevens
Managing editor
1-12-2017
MT. PLEASANT—The staff at the Sanpete Valley Hospital (SVH) is being proactive in preparing for emergencies by participating in simulations intended to keep them on their toes for the real deal.
One of the hospital’s most extensive training simulations took place Friday, Jan. 6. Suzy Zahler, RN, the hospital’s women’s services and medical-surgical manager, said the scenario was an obstetrical emergency involving an emergency delivery, resuscitation of a newborn, and treatment of the mother for severe bleeding resulting from the birth.
According to Zahler, the initial part of the simulation was a delivery where an infant got stuck while being born. A volunteer acted as the mother, and a life-like mannequin represented the newborn.
“It becomes a very difficult and traumatic delivery,” Zahler said.
Zahler said the overall simulation time was about four hours, which included a briefing to discuss the scenario in advance, then the simulation, and finally a debriefing to discuss how things were handled and how they could have been improved.
“We try to make it as real as possible,” Zahler said. “We have about as many participants as would be in the hospital on an average day or as many as we could get to come in and help. The others who were present were bystanders who watched what was going on and then gave feedback.
“We like to do a few of these a year. We try to do some trauma simulations, nursery and delivery simulations, a variety of scenarios. But this time we combined several scenarios for the staff to learn from.”
