COCHRANE— The Rotary Club of Cochrane recently donated four pediatric mannequins, which cost roughly $1,000, to enhance physician training at the Cochrane Urgent Care Centre on Tuesday (March 23).
“Dr. Curtis came to us with a request for these pediatric mannequins and we saw it as a way to give to the community and to give back to Urgent Care again,” said the treasurer of Cochrane Rotary, Glen Gryzko. “We thought that we had the resources to throw at this and make a good use of our community fund.”
The Rotary Club of Cochrane’s relationship with Cochrane Urgent Care goes back several years.
In 2014, the Rotary Club of Cochrane donated a $70,000 portable ultrasound unit and has also donated roughly $5,000 for portable suctions units and resuscitation training equipment.
“I think it’s incredibly important,” said president-elect of the Rotary Club of Cochrane Kevin Sheir, describing the relationship between the two organizations. “They have needs that can’t be met by Alberta Health. They don’t really have a fundraising arm, so they can reach out to us and the community and we can take our Rotary model of service above self and put it back in the community where it benefits everybody.”
That relationship has been immensely important for the Cochrane Urgent Care Centre, said medical director Glenn Curtis.
The donations over the years have led to many training opportunities for the staff of the centre, which has translated to high-quality care for the patients.
“We have a fantastic track-record and history of working together. Over the years, Rotary and the Kimmett Foundation have just made colossal, excellent donations with appropriate technology and training devices to Urgent Care that has really made a difference to deliver good, quality care, and also to keep our staff trained adequately as well,” Curtis said.
He noted the training requirements are mandated by Alberta Health Services, and the equipment the Centre has received over the years is a critical component in staying up to date.
“All physicians and nurses are required to stay current in training for adult cardiac emergencies, traumas, pediatric traumas and pediatric critical care procedures, and these are an absolute key part of that training,” Curtis said.
COVID-19, he said, has had a serious impact on how training is delivered to healthcare workers.
“We have not been able to do large classroom training. We used to have all of the urgent cares in the Calgary area come together for large training sessions, and we have not been able to do that because we cannot safely have that many people in a room. So, we have gone to small-group training in-house, so this allows us to keep everybody up to date with skills,” he said.
Technology in healthcare is constantly evolving, and the technology used in training is no exception to that rule.
Curtis explained the new mannequins donated to the Centre are not just new models, but fitted with monitoring technology that gives immediate feedback to the healthcare workers who use them for training.
“The first generations of mannequins were basically just like little dollies. You just pretended they were real people, you did chest compressions, you did breathing, no air went in, no air went out. You couldn’t tell if you were pushing too hard in CPR or too slowly. These actually link to an iPad and they give us real-time feedback of our CPR, whether we’re going too hard or too light, whether we’re going too fast or two slow, and when we do rescue breathing it actually measures how much air we’re putting in and how quickly we’re doing it, so it gives us exact feedback to ensure we’re ventilating correctly as well,” he said. “This really just steps the whole game up immensely in training.”
Curtis noted the updated training means the staff will be ready for a wide variety of situations and can handle every scenario with confidence.
“We have to be ready for anything that walks in that door anytime— Walks, or is carried in that door, I should say, and time of the day or evening. Having our full staff with current skills means that we can deliver quality care from step one when we’re dealing with critical patients,” he said.
Curtis said he is grateful to the Rotary Club of Cochrane for the vital pieces of infrastructure it has donated over the years and hopes to see the relationship continue.
“It is absolutely a partnership that has been vital for Cochrane Urgent Care, and is greatly appreciated,” he said.
