Health: To train health workers at the National Emergency Education Centre (NEEC), Bhutan Foundation yesterday donated a SimuLab TraumaMan worth Nu 1.8 million (M) to the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital (JDWNRH).

TraumaMan is a surgical training manikin that allows trainees to practice several advanced surgical procedures like chest tube insertion, needle decompression, cricothyroidotomy, among others.

Neurosurgeon Dr Tashi Tenzin said JDWNRH trainees are trained on live patients when they are in full conscious which is not right, although that’s being done for lack of alternatives.

“A day will come when patients will question why trainees are trained on them, causing complications,” Dr Tashi Tenzin said.

He said, the lifesaving training tool would avoid complications and allow trainees to repeat difficult procedures multiple times until they master the skills.

TraumaMan replicates the anatomy and physiology of a real human body, including realistic layers of skin and tissue, ribs, and internal organs.

The president of JDWNRH, Lhab Dorji, said the tool would not only benefit the hospital but also the overall medical education in the country.

The foundation also provided two-week training to two nurses from the referral hospital’s Emergency Medical Service department (EMS) at Phelps Memorial Hospital, USA last month. They were trained in proper handling and maintenance of the TraumaMan.

Since the start of EMS programme in June 2010, Bhutan Foundation has helped train over 150 doctors and nurses in emergency trauma care.

Twenty-five doctors and nurses have been certified as local trainers and 23 ambulance drivers have been trained in advanced first aid.

Bhutan Foundation’s programme manager, Deepika Chhetri, said the NEEC was established in November 2013 to train all health care workers in Bhutan in emergency medicine, resulting in improved quality of care for all.

All doctors and nurses in the country will be trained to provide standard emergency medical services at the centre, starting December this year.

Bhutan Foundation has provided training on emergency health care and medical services equipment worth over Nu 28.4M in the last five years.

Dechen Tshomo

Advertisement