Children's of Alabama Community Healthcare Education Simulation (COACHES)
The care of an acutely ill child in a community hospital setting is one of the most stressful moments for any community healthcare provider. Healthcare providers in these settings receive less frequent training in the care of critically ill pediatric patients and may not be familiar with available resources or supplies.
To address this, our team has created a program to help train your entire healthcare team in the care of pediatric patients in your hospital. The Children’s of Alabama Community Healthcare Education Simulation (COACHES) program is a multidisciplinary team of pediatric critical care trained physicians and nurses who are conducting simulation training interventions in community hospitals, with the ultimate goal of improving pediatric patient outcomes. We believe this program will improve the care provided to pediatric patients and improve outcomes for acutely ill and injured children. Our goal is to work with you to enhance the training for all healthcare team members caring for ill and injured children. We hope this unique learning experience is of interest to you and, if positively received, may open the door for a longer-term bi-directional relationship between our team and your institution!
Our Mission
To utilize simulation in a structured environment to promote excellence in pediatric clinical care, patient safety and education for all healthcare practitioners and care teams throughout the state of Alabama.
Our Vision
A mobile multidisciplinary simulation institution of excellence that provides high-fidelity simulation to community providers to promote education, research and the delivery of safe, innovative healthcare for children.
Program Description
A pediatric simulation outreach team – consisting of a pediatric critical care physician, a simulation nurse educator, and a simulation research coordinator – travels to community hospitals to provide pediatric readiness assessments and simulation education.
Day long visits are scheduled in either the emergency department or pediatric inpatient floor and consists of two simulation education sessions (morning and afternoon) with 3-4 simulation scenarios per session to evaluate community hospital health care team performance when caring for critically ill pediatric patients. Each session is with different team members to ensure a more comprehensive representation of each hospital’s performance. Each simulation scenario will be followed immediately by a debriefing with team members to discuss medical management, team communication, and barriers to patient care including suggestions to overcome them.
A report that includes results of the pediatric readiness assessment and the overall performance evaluation for both sessions will be presented to each hospital. The report will also include recommendations for improvement of pediatric care at each hospital.
Contact Information
Need more information? You can reach us at 205-638-6669 or COACHES@childrensal.org.
