News broadcasts across Baltimore reported on The University of Maryland’s School of Nursing’s new robotic training tool: Super Tory. The Debra L. Spunt Clinical Simulation Labs (CSLs) recently added the infant patient simulator to their state-of-the-art facility to help train nurses on how to treat infants during a medical emergency.

The CSLs aim to give students and practitioners vital clinical experiences in a life-like environment. Through simulation-based health care education, students and practitioners can learn and rehearse skills they will use in the real world. Ultimately, by practicing these skills in the simulation lab, doctors and nurses will be better prepared to treat patients and perform procedures correctly.

Super Tory is the world’s most advanced robotic infant patient simulator. Super Tory looks like and realistically simulates the various physiological movements and responses of a real baby. She can move her limbs, make a variety of facial expressions, cry, breathe, and even turn blue to simulate a medical emergency.

These realistic features are important cues babies use to communicate since they cannot verbalize distress. Health care professionals use these cues to diagnose babies. Thus, it is vitally important medical professionals be able to recognize these cues to give an accurate diagnosis based on what these cues are telling them.

One in ten newborns will require assistance while breathing. To make sure staff and nursing students are ready to help these patients, UMD is using Super Tory to run critical clinical scenarios that will help them respond to various emergency situations. Through simulation, students and staff can hone their skills without the risk of harming a real patient.

The nurses and staff run the simulation under the guidance of an educator, and they practice as many times as necessary until they get the procedure and process correct. More importantly, nursing students will have the chance to learn how to perform various procedures before they treat a real patient.

Since they will not have access to this type of training once they enter a real hospital, the students will enter the hospital better prepared for the realities of a medical emergency. By practicing on a sophisticated simulator, participants can practice how to intubate an infant until it becomes second-nature. This will reduce the chance of a costly mistake being made.

Better training for doctors and nurses produce better outcomes for patients. Medical experts say that over the past decade, new training techniques have helped reduce newborn deaths by 19% in Baltimore.

Clearly, innovative training like simulation-based training has helped ensure better outcomes for patients. By using Super Tory in their training program, UMD is developing well-rounded medical professionals who are prepared to handle any emergency.

To watch the complete NBC, Fox, and NBC broadcasts and see Super Tory in action, click on the link. To learn more about Super Tory visit the Gaumard website or click on the link.