A Model Patient for Junior Doctors

MANIKINS are standing in for patients in a scheme designed to hone the skills of junior doctors armed with needles and probing fingers.

Hutt Hospital’s clinical skills laboratory was highly commended in the individual category of the Health Innovation Awards in Wellington last night.

The lab is the brainchild of Hutt Valley District Health Board physician Iwona Stolarek, who raised $25,000 to set up the project three years ago. She was concerned by gaps in junior doctors’ practical skills when they began working as house surgeons at the hospital. Many had never done or seen some basic clinical procedures.

The lab provides simulator machines and manikins, a medical equivalent of a mannequin, to help doctors practise procedures such as identifying cancerous lumps, detecting heart murmurs, giving injections, and performing lumbar punctures.

“The only thing we have to practise on otherwise is patients, and patients are now saying I don’t want to be a guinea pig, I want someone experienced,” Dr Stolarek said. “On a model you can keep practising until you get it right.”

The lab is part of Dr Stolarek’s thesis for a masters in medical education. She runs skills workshops for doctors and also teaches some nurses and GPs. The results have been positive, with 75 per cent of junior doctors saying they felt more confident after taking her workshop.

Dr Stolarek said all hospitals should set up similar labs. “I’m sure patients would feel much happier knowing that the person doing the procedure on them has actually had practice.” The clinical skills lab was selected as a finalist from 151 entries. It was the only finalist from the Wellington region to be highly commended.

But Nicutools, an online calculator that is the brainchild of Wellington Hospital neo-natal specialist Michael Hewson and used to treat sick newborns, won the people’s choice award. A scheme to reduce overcrowding-related illnesses, such as meningococcal disease, among families in Housing NZ houses in Auckland and Northland won the supreme award.

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