The Australia and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) Quality and Safety Conference was held at Double Bay, Sydney this month; a space to exchange innovative ideas and showcase the efforts of health care networks across Australia in improving patient care. Monash Simulation was well represented with three of their core simulation staff accepted to present on novel clinical event debriefing, the role of Medical Emergency Team (MET) response training and the benefits of an innovative at-work psychology program.
Dr Kerrianne Huynh spoke about her research on her clinical event debriefing course in her presentation ‘Beyond the Code Blue’. Participants’ confidence to perform debriefing and provide psychological first-aid increased from 19% to 92% after a single day of targeted training and simulation. The most valued component of the course was the CLEAR framework structure and simulated practice of debriefing, with secondary themes of non-judgemental questioning and celebrating clinical success.
Dr Jonathan Devine presented his study on the Medical Emergency Team Response at Monash Health (MR@MH), a one-day program involving Intensive Care Unit (ICU) outreach nurses, ICU registrars, and physician trainees rolled out to the Monash Health network of four ICUs. The results were overwhelmingly positive with learners identifying improved communication, role allocation and task delegation as areas of the most impactful learning.
Dr Mathanhi (Maddy) Jegatheeswaran shared the findings of her study on the benefits of an in-house psychotherapy program in a tertiary ICU. The benefits to staff were improved individual psychological wellbeing, perceived positive workplace wellbeing culture and improved work-life balance. The results are largely positive and this data will add more insight into how to approach well-being in the future.
Monash Simulation’s strong presence at this noteworthy event is a testament to the commitment of Monash Simulation to continue providing high value services to Monash Health, bridging the gap between work as imagined versus work as done, with a focus on quality improvement and patient safety.
If you are interested in the role of simulation in MET training or clinical event debriefing, please reach out to the Monash Simulation team at monashsimulation@monashhealth.org to explore partnership opportunities or navigate to our website https://monashhealth.org/services/simulation/ for more information.
Dr Mathanhi Jegatheeswaran
Monash Simulation Fellow/Intensive Care Consultant
