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Innovative training methodologies

Apart from courses designed to adapt to the specific training requirements of the competencies needed for healthcare processes, a feature of the training provided in Iavante is the use of innovative methodologies, such as robotic simulation, virtual simulation, actor-based simulation, video analysis, experimental surgery and e-training.

These methodologies are used both individually and in combination, depending on the requirements of each particular competence, to confront professionals with extremely life-like situations designed to improve their technical and relational competencies.

The most innovative training methodologies can be found at CMAT, our centre in Granada; as far as both training approach and technological expertise is concerned, CMAT is the only centre of its kind in Europe.

Training undergone by healthcare professionals in CMAT is based on simulating real-life situations using robots, virtual simulators with photorealism and haptics, standardised simulated patients, etc. The training takes place in realistic scenarios such as operating rooms, critical care rooms, consultation rooms and even out-of-hospital areas (city street and house).

 

Experimental surgical training

This methodology trains professionals in surgical procedures in a setting that exactly mirrors a real clinical environment. Surgical interventions are performed on animal models or on human anatomical models.

Operating rooms are equipped with all the elements a surgeon would find in a real hospital setting. The aim is to place professionals in a realistic environment and recreate the most detailed and life-like scenario, providing a context in which the surgeon will have to deal with the same kind of situations he would encounter in his professional work. The use of anaesthetic and surgical instruments, garments, other stage elements and supporting roles (assistants, theatre nurse, etc.) further enhance the training experience.

Using this model, training can be applied to both individual technical skills and to surgical teams wishing to develop both technical and non-technical skills and is a further development in patient safety culture.

Experimental surgical training is mainly focused on developing Minimally Invasive Surgery and includes robotic surgery (using the da Vinci® Surgical System), laparoscopic surgery, microsurgery, basicranial endoscopy, endoventricular neuroendoscopic surgery or natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery.

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Robotic simulation

This approach uses robots and mannequins that move and react in a similar way to a human being during certain pathological procedures. This allows participants to work in a life-like environment and perfect simple or complex competencies that, because of their invasive nature, cannot be acquired through real procedures.

The robots are programmed with certain clinical cases involving a series of variables that the student must measures, diagnose and treat. These include vital signs (pulse, blood pressure, blood oxygen level), respiratory rhythms and sound, obstruction of airways, external and internal trauma lesions, etc.

The teacher can also control the robots and adapt the training to the progress made by the student, causing the robot to display situations or reactions that the student must detect and treat.

The robots breathe in and out, cough, vomit and can respond to questions put by the student to establish a diagnosis by means of a sound system connected to the teacher’s control panel. Some robots are programmed to react to drugs in a different way according to the type of patient: age, sex and constitution.

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Virtual simulation

This methodology uses specific photorealistic software and haptics to recreate lifelike anatomical environments where students can be trained in the use of exploratory tools, acquire knowledge of specific anatomical areas, and diagnose and treat several different lesions.

Iavante has simulators for training in gastroscopy, bronchoscopy, colonoscopy, urology, abdominal echography, sigmoidoscopy, laparoscopy, retrograde cholangiography, pancreatic endoscopy and percutaneous puncture of the kidney. The centre also has a FACO emulsification simulator for ophthamological procedures (cataracts).

All of these simulators contain a full range of clinical cases with patients of different ages and sex and with injuries that vary in nature, severity and complexity.

This methodology enables professionals to handle and perfect the use of tools that usually produce discomfort in the patient because of the technique involved. Training is also offered in uncommon or complex situations for improving efficiency in diagnosis and treatment.

The objective is always the same: to train professionals in the command of techniques and competencies which improve the quality of healthcare provided and reduce risks to patients.

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Actor-based simulation

Trained actors simulate situations in which interpersonal relations have considerable impact, for example, in clinical interviews.

Simulation is carried out in settings that reproduce, as true-to-life as possible, the environment where these situations arise with the aim of immersing the student in each case.

Examples can include casualty consultations, specialist consultations or emergency situations in a private home where, in addition to attending the patient, medical personnel must tend to a family experiencing a moment of great tension and confusion. The staged situation and the props enable students to become fully involved in the situation they are faced with and must control.

Actors are specifically taught to express the symptoms presented by each pathology and to portray normal or exceptional reactions, providing students with training in clinical interviews and enabling them to extract as much useful information as possible on which to base their diagnosis.

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E-training

Most of our training activities include on-line modules. These modules not only provide teaching material but also forums, chats, videoconferencing, etc.

This methodology, combined with the audiovisual and multimedia equipment available in our centre, makes it possible to transmit live or recorded clinical sessions, procedures, filmed practice sessions, analysis of complex cases, etc., held in CMAT or in any other Andalusian Public Health System centre.

We also provide tele-tutors whose mission is to guide students, answer their queries and evaluate the extent to which they have assimilated the competencies received. Communication with tele-tutors takes the form of chats or group forums, e-mails, etc.

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Videoanalysis

Direct observation of the procedures and techniques performed during courses, or analysis of the same by means of an internet broadcast, allows students to optimise their learning process by observing and correcting mistakes made during training sessions. The system of cameras and microphones installed in all rooms enables students to examine their own reactions and actions during debriefing sessions.

The combination of this methodology and the audiovisual and multimedia equipment installed in our centres makes it possible to transmit live or recorded clinical sessions, procedures, filmed practice sessions, analysis of complex cases, etc. taking place in our centre or at any other location. In short, these techniques greatly enhance training quality and enable us to admit a much greater number of students to each training session.

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