The Scottish Centre for Simulation and Clinical Human Factors at Forth Valley Royal Hospital recently hosted its first Doors Open Day, with great success.
Tucked away on the second floor of the hospital and usually off-limits to the public, the centre was one of the more unusual venues for this year’s National Doors Open Scheme. Normally used for training medical staff, members of the public were able to ‘become a doctor for a day’ and learn more about the hi-tech robotic mannequins at the national centre.
People of all ages took the opportunity to perform tests on ‘patients’, hone their resuscitation skills, listen to their heartbeat with a stethoscope or test their reflexes.
NHS Forth Valley’s Communications Assistant Lindsay Hathaway, who was one of the many people who attended, said: “It was really interesting to see inside the Simulation Centre and get up close to the mannequins, they really are hi-tech. One woman got a fright when she peered down for a closer look at ‘Stan’ and he blinked at her! Besides blinking, Stan also has a pulse, his chest moves up and down and he reacts when lights are shone into his eyes.
“I got to try out my operating skills, in a way, by using surgical tools to transfer ‘polo mints’ from one post to another, I also tried (and failed) to tie a knot in a piece of string using only the tools. My Mum also had a go at retrieving swallowed items from the throat of one of the mannequins with special forceps. There was also a CPR demonstration, something I’ve done before, but skills well worth re-visiting in case of emergencies.”
