January 15, 2025
Members of the Brooks OR team work together during a simulation with guidance from the Rural Surgical and Obstetrical Networks of Alberta and eSIM (Educate, Simulate, Innovate, Motivate) teams. Supplied.
Story by Kathleen Deman
BROOKS — It’s a special day when a rural site in Alberta has a full-day simulation brought to them, providing extensive learning opportunities directly in the community.
On Nov. 29, members of the Rural Surgical and Obstetrical Networks of Alberta (RSONA) and eSIM (Educate, Simulate, Innovate, Motivate) teams travelled to Brooks Health Centre to do just that.
RSONA is an Alberta Health Services (AHS) initiative that aims to align training and education for rural physicians and the obstetrical workforce with operational needs and using alternative models of care.
This networked approach extends surgical service access, maintains rural capacity and sustains 24/7 emergent surgical access where appropriate in rural Alberta. Providing coaching services is also a foundation of RSONA, which can be challenging to do in a rural setting without disrupting patient care.
“It can be difficult to pull physicians out of a small rural site and get them to close their practice and travel because that means you're taking away access and patient care from patients,” says Rana Sleiman, provincial clinical implementation lead.
So RSONA created a customized coaching opportunity in Brooks in the form of a one-day event offering two simulations. They approached AHS’ eSIM team to help plan and facilitate these simulations.
Simulations are offered as an educational technique where clinical events are recreated to engage providers in a relevant, interactive, immersive and meaningful experience, through guided facilitation.
“There's immense benefit of having an expert team like RSONA come to a rural community like Brooks,” says Amanda Swan, simulation consultant with eSIM for Southeast Alberta. “These smaller rural sites are tasked with procedures like delivering babies or dealing with life-threatening situations like bleeding or anaphylaxis. Being able to practise with the team in a controlled environment alongside experts available to support is so valuable.”
The first simulation created an obstetrical event with a post-partum hemorrhage (PPH) after labour and delivery. Physicians, medical students and nurses came together to collaborate in this 90-minute simulation, which saw the team run through the phases of a PPH while receiving feedback and teachings from specialists in real time.
"It was such a valuable learning opportunity,” says Misty Smith, assistant head nurse. “Not just for seasoned nurses, but new staff and physicians. The communication training helped reinforce collaborative care between physicians and nurses. The simulation helped reinforce what we learned through our textbooks.”
The second simulation was an OR event where anaphylaxis occurred during an operation with the current OR team at the site. The simulation focused on strengthening their cohesive teamwork during a critical event.
“The value of sessions like these cannot be emphasized enough and have a massive effect on the hospital and community morale and efficiency,” says Dr. Du Toit Visser, family physician.
For RSONA, this training goes beyond a one-day event. The team is following up with the site in Brooks to create a customized coaching plan and build a continuous connection with them. RSONA has plans to repeat this event at five more sites, starting with Bonnyville on Jan. 28.
“We feel the possibilities are endless because we’re here to bring coaching experiences which can be individualized for sites and how they want it to look,” says Rana.
“What we focus on is rural. We're here to support and create access and great care for the rural population in Alberta.”