Full-Dress Rehearsals with Actual Non-Infected Patients Builds Confidence and Familiarity – An Experience from Singapore during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Purpose: COVID-19 has spread throughout the world with merciless pace. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is required to protect healthcare workers from contracting the virus. The authors evaluated the use of full-dress rehearsals (FDR) to familiarize staff with protocols and equipment that are not often use otherwise. Methods: A single institution in Singapore performed FDR with noninfected patients for endoscopy after refresher courses with PPE were conducted. FDRs were conducted between February and March 2020, during the initial phase of the COVID-19 outbreak. The FDRs involved all phases of endoscopy. Statistics from the FDRs were compared against baseline procedure statistics. A selfadministered survey was conducted for the procedurists after the FDRs. Results: A total of 26 FDRs were conducted and 20 (77%) completed the survey. Among all the FDRs conducted, there was a slight increase in duration for colonoscopy FDRs (21.5 min vs 20.0 min, p ¼ 0.22). There were no complications. All respondents had a good experience (score rating of 4-5/5). On qualitative analysis, the themes identified were:FDRs provided a good opportunity to have hands-on familiarization of the equipment on top of routine refresher training.Participants were cognizant of the ongoing outbreak and the evolving threat. Safety measures were reinforced. Procedurists who acknowledged weaknesses, requested for more training. Conclusions:Simulation training with patients provides participants with a level of realism that is critical for rapid learning. In crisis management, the most effective protocol familiarization is important to instill confidence in the PPE, workflows and healthcare partners.

Health Care Simulation as a Training Tool for Epidemic Management

“…The study characteristics are presented in the Table 1. Most of the studies on simulation-based training were developed in response to SARS-CoV-2 (n = 117, 79.1%) 6–8,16–128 . Eighteen were motivated by Ebola outbreaks (12.2%), 129–146 7 by influenza (4.7%), 147–153 3 by MERS (2%), 154–156 and 3 by pandemics in general (2%) 157–159 …”

The Development and Integration of a Safety Officer Role to Facilitate Prevention of COVID-19 Virus Transmission in an Adult Inpatient Rehabilitation Setting Using Collaborative Change Leadership Methodology

“…The use of such a buddy system where there is mutual supervision has been recommended as a strategy to prevent potential errors in techniques which could make staff members more prone to infection transmission (Cheng et al, 2020). Furthermore, it has been suggested that this training take place in the same clinical setting where it is to be practiced, as it can facilitate realistic team-based communication, as well as allow for better retention of knowledge and sharing of skills among team members (Koh et al, 2020). The St. John's Rehab program of Sunnybrook provides adult specialty inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation including stroke, amputee, cardiac, musculoskeletal, trauma, and burn rehabilitation.…”