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– Olav, are you out of breath?
Nurse Vilde Ulfski leans over a patient with respiratory problems and looks at the device to the side to verify his values.
This time, the situation is an exercise and the patient is a puppet in the Ahus simulation center, but for the ten nurses participating in the simulation, caring for seriously ill corona patients may soon become part of life. everyday.
Ahus was one of the hospitals this spring that experienced intensive care unit capacity approaching exhaustion.
A maximum of 24 patients entered the ward, 18 of them on a ventilator. That’s in a room that usually has a capacity for ten intensive care patients.
– We have taken many experiences from that time. And what we saw was that we needed outside help, says intensive care nurse Siri Hansen.
She is a vocational nurse in the intensive care unit and explains that Ahus, like hospitals across the country, is struggling with a shortage of intensive care nurses. According to the Norwegian Nurses Association, there is a shortage of between 500 and 1000 intensive care nurses nationwide.
– It takes a long time to educate more, so we saw that we needed the help of others, says Hansen.
It was Sykepleien who first spoke about the project.
DRESS: The simulation takes place in smtitevernsutstyr. Photo: Tommy Storhaug / TV 2
New program developed
The solution was a training program that will equip employees from other departments of the hospital to be able to contribute to the intensive care unit.
– What we want with this scheme is to raise everyone’s level of competence, so that it is higher when they arrive at the intensive care unit. And that they feel more secure when they have to stand in the situations that arise there, explains Hansen.
COLLABORATION: Jan Haukvik, Siri Hansen and Thomas Usler are among the actors collaborating on the project.
The training program is a collaboration between various settings and departments of the hospital. The course consists of a theoretical block, a day of team building, skills training and simulation, before the participants spend at least three days of practice in the intensive care unit.
– Now we train these nurses in a private room, but if we keep waiting and need more equipment, we establish the same program on a much larger scale, says Thomas Usler, who is the facilitator of the training.
He and Hansen both emphasize that the seven days of training and practice are not the same as a full intensive care nursing training.
– Those who participate here should be the outstretched arm of the intensive care nurses and be able to contribute what they can contribute to relieve the intensive care nurses, so that they can take care of the worst patients, says Hansen.
More hospitalized
Ahus currently has six patients admitted to the intensive care unit, and this week he has been close to the usual intensive care capacity of ten patients.
– Now we’ve been in this situation for so long that we’ve made some changes to the way we work on a daily basis and how we use staff, so that right now we can still manage those patients with existing resources after making some adaptations, he says surgeon Jan Haukvik.
He is one of six emergency managers at the hospital.
– What do you do if there are four new patients next week?
– The concern is there, and we closely follow the evolution of society in general. An ongoing assessment is made of how many crown patients we have and how bad they are. But most importantly, we have developed this plan, which allows us to scale quickly.
The ten participants in this week’s course will be able to enter the intensive care unit on short notice.
– You must use the resources we have
PARTICIPANTS: Henriette Bangsund, Vilde Ulfski and Helene Kristina Amundsen participated in the course.
– I have acquired a lot of knowledge about emergency situations, says nurse Helene Kristina Amundsen, who has just finished the fourth round of simulation of the training.
– We shouldn’t be alone with these patients. And I think you have to use the resources you have to the best of your ability and just do your best to contribute.
