ASL 5000 Flexibility is Key at Nationwide Children’s Hospital

Hands-On Simulation Training Key to Success

How do you help learners move from theoretical knowledge to solid clinical skills? One way is to incorporate hands-on simulation into your training program as they have at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio.

We talked with Bianca Edler, BSRT, RRT,  a respiratory therapist at Nationwide. Bianca shared her experiences using IngMar Medical’s ASL 5000™ Breathing Simulator for her training at the hospital.

Using the ASL 5000 Breathing Simulator Improves Respiratory Training

The ASL 5000 was a key tool when Bianca went through her respiratory training. In her opinion it fills a unique role in respiratory simulation instruction,

“Other test devices are set on a cookie cutter program. The ASL 5000 is flexible, allowing for nonlinear simulation training.”

According to Bianca, respiratory simulation training is essential because hands-on experience is better than relying only on text books and lectures.

“In real life, respiratory therapy is never by-the-book. A dynamic simulation is better for learning how to get a good idea of what’s happening with the patient. There is no ‘one way’ to do things in respiratory therapy, and the ASL 5000 allows for that flexibility.”

Continuing Competency Critical

A second area where the ASL 5000 comes into play is annual competency certification. The hospital requires its respiratory therapists to pass an annual competency test on respiratory equipment, including ventilators.

Bianca says that using the ASL 5000 is great for the competency certification because the therapists can actually see changes happening on the ventilator and make the correct adjustments. The ASL 5000 can also be set up to run the competency test automatically.

Mastering Ventilator Management Builds Confidence

Using the ASL 5000 in ventilator management training helped Bianca to become more confident in her clinical skills and manner. As she puts it,

“Using the ASL 5000 during training helped me to become more confident in my bedside skills and comfortable interacting with real patients, because the ASL 5000 lets you see the cause and effect right away, like a real patient.”

Note: If you intend to use the ASL 5000 for training, we recommend our offerings with software designed specifically for educators: the RespiSim System or the ASL 5000 Lung Solution for the SimMan Platform.  These systems also offer  manikins.