Wright-Patt nursing team studies use of human patient simulator for wartime training

  • Published
  • By Mike Frangipane
  • 88 Air Base Wing Public Affairs
A Wright-Patterson nurse training team, under the supervision of Col. Debra Doty, 88 MDG Chief Nurse, is conducting a study titled Operation Healthcare: Ready to Care for Our Warriors. The Wright-Patterson Team was selected for the study by Dr. (Col.) Elizabeth Bridges, USAFR NC, PhD, RN of the University of Washington School of Nursing, the research program's principal investigator and study overseer.

The study, funded by a grant from TriService Nursing Research Program, focused upon the use of a state-of-the-art human patient simulator to present the kinds of trauma injuries that nurses may encounter during deployment around the world. Capt. Patt, as the simulator was affectionately dubbed, is also known as Meti-man, an acronym derived from his creator, Florida-based Medical Education Technologies, Inc..

The simulator presents all of the life-signs of a real patient. For example, he can blink, breathe, run a temperature and present a heartbeat and a pulse detected in all of the locations found in a human subject. He even responds verbally to the practitioner's questions. Injections can be administered to him, and IV's can be inserted and managed.

Previous patient simulators were constructed of hard plastic with a small hole drilled between sealed lips. Meti-man is made of covered pliable foam, has a full set of teeth and a pliable tongue. Medication is administered by scanning a barcode on a needless syringe registering the medication and desired dose. The "patient" can then be observed to respond to the medication by varying the heart monitor, breathing, body temperature and other responses. Meti-man's condition improves with the right treatment, declines with the wrong, and he can even die. With adjustment Meti-man can even become Meti-woman.

"The purpose of the study is to determine whether human simulation or traditional training methods better prepare nurses to respond to the unique characteristics of casualties seen during wartime," said Col. Doty. To accomplish this, four scenarios were presented to the 40 volunteer nurses who participated in the study: anaphylactic shock (hypersensitive reaction to a substance), ankle and head injury, bomb blast injury, and burn injury. Dividing into an experimental and a control group, the nurses had to utilize their readiness skills to do primary and secondary assessments, triage, airway management, orthopedic management, neurological assessments, management of shock, care of a trauma victim, cervical spine control, burn assessment, burn resuscitation and IV requirements, said Doty.

First conducted at Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland AFB, Texas, the study is being repeated here at Wright-Patterson. Reacting to the selection of the Wright-Patterson team, Col. Doty said, "We were excited. It is definitely a wonderful opportunity to be selected as the site to replicate the study. I look forward to the results."

The study began in the fall of 2006. The results are scheduled for release February 26, 2008.