The Emergency Medical Sciences Department’s immersive simulation laboratory took centre stage during the recent Northern Suburbs Stroke Workshop.
Lecturer Ryan Matthews said the workshop focused on interdisciplinary acute stroke care and rehabilitation and was a collaborative effort between the EMS Department, The Angels Initiative and the Tygerberg Stroke Unit at Tygerberg Hospital.
“It was aimed at teaching health professionals, mainly doctors and nurses in emergency centres, paramedics and paramedic students the basics of early stroke care,” said Matthews.
The workshop consisted of a morning of lectures followed by an afternoon of practical application. Allied and rehabilitation professionals also received training in specialist medical procedures such as swallow assessments, nasogastric tube placements and mobilisation techniques for stroke patients.
“Our major contribution was the use of our simulation laboratory to conduct simulations of the management of stroke. We had live patients simulating a strokes,” said Matthews.
The participants would go into the simulation room to attend to the scenario while other workshop attendees could watch them from a remote room.
The various neurologists and professors present would then give the participants feedback on how they had performed in the situation.
“With the click of a button the participants were transferred from a pre-hospital setting to a hospital setting and we could even simulate physiological changes for them,” said lecturer Siciro Rossouw.
Lecturer John Meyer provided the technical expertise in the laboratory.
The speakers included UCT’s Prof Alan Bryer, head of the division of neurology at Groote Schuur Hospital and chairperson of the SA Stroke Society and Dr Naeem Brey, consultant Neurologist at Tygerberg Hospital, while Matthews delivered a talk on pre-hospital notification.
