Physician residents received hands-on experience in labour and delivery

Medical experts from Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) worked alongside Family Medicine Teaching Unit residents in a labour and delivery scenario through a High-Fidelity simulation lab at Georgian College.

“This allows them to have what looks like a real woman in labour with all the different potential complications, and they can simulate, you know, either very simple uncomplicated deliveries or some that are very stressful and have complications with that they have to deal with in real life which can include something called a shoulder dystocia where the baby’s shoulder can’t come out or bleeding after delivery,” said Dr. Christopher Martin, director of medical education and medical director of critical care at RVH.

Throughout the day, physician residents had to tend to a postpartum hemorrhage.

“These types of scenarios don’t happen very often, but needless to say, when they do happen, it is absolutely critical for the safety of the patient that the staff around have the ability to manage those very complex critical situations," said Dr. Sara Lankshear, associate dean of nursing programs at Georgian College.

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Residents had the chance to get hands-on experience to improve their skills for the future, and some say this is as close to real life as it gets.

“This is a really good comparison to most closely resembling what it’s like to deliver a baby but also having not as much pressure and then also your teamwork combined to help you out from other students, so it’s nice to continually practice this,” said Rainbow Negus, physician resident.

This is a first-of-its-kind partnership between RVH and the college.

“We have wonderful institutions that are right next to each other, and we’re sharing each other’s expertise and resources. It’s allowing for better training not only for our physicians but eventually with their nurses because we will be doing this together,” said Dr. Martin.

As our community continues to grow, there is an increasing need for obstetric care. Officials say partnerships like this aim to strengthen support for this program and health care as a whole in our region.