On May 23rd and 26th, a team lead by Dr. Jennifer Nelson and Dr. Katherine Clement came together at NC Children’s Hospital to lead an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) case simulation.
The case was run to assist the team in improving communication as well as identifying areas for quality improvement. The scenario began when the PICU nursing team advised the PICU fellow of a decline in the patient’s status. From there, the rest of the interprofessional team including the PICU attending and surgical physicians, ECMO team, respiratory therapists, perfusionists, operating room attendants and nurses were assembled.
The simulation also included a prototype ECMO simulator designed and built by a collaborative team including Dr. Nelson, Mr. Henry Goodell, and Mr. Neal Murty.
The team planned to run the case in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) but patient load required that they perform the drill in the PICU conference room. Even with this challenge, the team identified several areas for improvement and answered many questions about the ECMO protocol for new staff members.
Dr. Nelson is a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon and Co-Director of the UNC ECMO Program. Dr. Clement is a pediatric intensivist and Pediatric ECMO Quality Improvement Director. Other members of the interprofessional team included: Craig Beckman, Muntasir Chowdhury, Vivian Gannaban, Greg Griffin, Gene Hobbs, and Eric Jernigan.
You can check out other photos from these events on Twitter here.