Photo credit: Jonathan Bloom/NBC Bay Area

Stanford’s Revive training program recently began using a new tool to train doctors and nurses at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. Pediatric HAL, Gaumard Scientific’s latest and most advanced pediatric patient simulator, is helping the hospital’s staff train to respond to “code blue” events.

Pediatric HAL is the first patient simulator capable of simulating lifelike facial expressions, emotions, and moods. This is especially important to the provider because expressions and emotions offer vital diagnostic clues and help develop feelings of empathy which ultimately leads to better patient outcomes.

Additionally, the staff can engage with the manikin as if it were a real patient. As a result, the simulation is treated as a real emergency event, so the staff is more likely to retain what they learn. By practicing over and over again in a realistic environment, the staff will be better prepared to treat a real patient and save a life.

The simulation program is helpful to the hospital’s staff because adults are experiential learners, they learn by doing. Furthermore, because HAL can support the use of real equipment like ventilators and sensors in a real hospital room, the staff will enter a real emergency situation already being familiar with the equipment and procedures they need to use.

Communication is a major focus of the Revive program. As the scenario progresses, the participants constantly inform each other of the patient’s vitals and the procedure being used. This helps develop teamwork, so fewer mistakes are made.

The simulation is also recorded so the participants can debrief after and go over what happened in the simulation. The debrief allows them to see when mistakes were made, what can be improved, and what went right.

Stanford’s pediatric resuscitation team recorded the entire simulated emergency event. You can watch the team in action as they work to save HAL’s life. The video allows for a 360-degree view of the event so you can see how every team member contributed to the simulation.

To watch the complete NBC report, CLICK HERE. To learn more about Pediatric HAL, visit the Gaumard website or click on the link.