Moncton Hospital raising money for simulation labs, where doctors can get practise

Two simulation labs will be coming to the Moncton Hospital to help health-care providers practise their skills on "smart mannequins."

Friends of the Moncton Hospital Foundation is raising the $850,000 needed for the labs.

The labs will be used for practising surgeries, routine procedures and even baby delivery. 

Greg King, the president and CEO of the foundation, said the mannequins will do everything a real patient would do. He said health-care teams will be able to hone their skills in a simulation before facing the same situation in real life. Similar labs already exist in the region, but Moncton plans something different, he said.

"We want to develop a more thorough program, where all of the different health-care professions are part of it, and where we feel it's going to impact pretty much every inch of the hospital," said King.

So far, the foundation has raised $100,000 with an internal campaign toward their $1.1 million goal, to be split into the $850,000 for the simulation labs and $250,000 for a retention and recruitment endowment. The campaign is beginning now and will likely end in the spring, depending on how fundraising goes, he said. 

One lab will be located in the obstetrics and newborn care building now being constructed, and the other will be in the former obstetrics operating room. 

Dr. Andrew MacLean, a family medicine resident in Fredericton, said he's used simulation labs at Dalhousie University and at McMaster University.

He said they are helpful during the learning phase because people using them can get feedback before facing an urgent situation. 

"These learning experiences are increasingly important for medical students, for nurses, for respiratory therapists, and it's about the quality of the experience you're able to offer," said MacLean. "And to do that, unfortunately, these simulation labs are expensive They cost a lot of money."

King said the simulation labs will do a lot to recruit resident doctors to the region.

He said when doctors come to New Brunswick for their residencies, a lot of them stay in the region. This project, along with a recruitment and retention effort, will impact thousands of patients requiring family doctors, he said.

For doctors who are at the resident stage of their training, simulation labs are "an important piece to the puzzle," MacLean said.

He said students in medical school have the opportunity to look into residency programs across the country. Part of their decision, MacLean said, will come from the quality of the educational experience and up-to-date technology. 

He said it's an excellent idea for Moncton Hospital to add these labs and to be thinking about how to offer the best possible learning experience. 

"Having access to these facilities and labs is very important to the overall educational experience," said MacLean.

"So [it is] definitely something that we take into consideration when we think about where we'd like to end up in terms of our medical training and hopefully future practice."