OTTAWA -- Doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists at the Ottawa Hospital have been going back to school to prepare to treat patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ottawa Hospital Simulation Patient Safety Program offers simulated training exercises to prepare all frontline hospital staff to treat patients, while protecting themselves from getting ill.
The program is designed to train hospital staff on a variety of medical scenarios they would see in the hospital on a daily basis.
Dr. Glenn Posner tells CTV News at Six that as the COVID-19 situation began to unfold this winter, they decided to pivot the program to focus on COVID-19 preparedness.
“I’m very pleased that we started in the place that we thought needed the most frontline training, which was the first area of contact which is the emergency department,” said Dr. Posner.
The Ottawa Hospital Simulation Patient Safety Program started training staff on COVID-19 preparedness on Monday, March 9.
“To make sure both the Civic and General Campus had training in how to deal with a patient, how to intubate a patient that required urgent treatment right from being assessed in the emergency department,” said Dr. Posner.
“And then see what it feels like to transfer that patient from the emergency department to the intensive care unit, and all the logistical problems that go with it.”
Since the initial training, the Ottawa Hospital Simulation Patient Safety Program has covered other scenarios, including putting on the personal protective equipment, preparing patients for scans and treating a patient requiring surgery.
Dr. Posner says the Ottawa Hospital has recorded the training scenarios using virtual reality, so hospitals around the world can watch and learn.
