Staff at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth are set to be given a training boost in the form of a high tech dummy called the ‘Sim Man’.

The aim of the new equipment is to help develop vital skills for those working in intensive care and other critical areas, helping to save lives in the process. The dummy is fitted with a range of sensors to make it as a lifelike as possible – it can even talk and move to add to the realism.

Such equipment will prove useful when training for scenarios such as natural and manmade disasters, as well as greatly improving basic life support skills.

One of the project’s leaders, Dr Catherine Ward, said: “Simulation training has not only helped improve team performance, adherence to protocols and improved non-technical skills, and patient outcomes, but it also helps to pick up glitches or latent errors in the healthcare system, such as difficulty accessing drugs in an emergency or lack of appropriate equipment.”

These high tech dummies have already proven popular in the US, with many high schools and medical schools using them. Children, in particular, have shown an enthusiastic response to the dummies. Director Dale Jernigan from South Baldwin Regional Medical Center has been working with the Gulf Shores High School’s Health Science Career Academy – one of the school’s which has shown a positive response to the dummies.

He said: “Everyone has been generous and excited and wanting to know what they can do. This community and the schools are working like this now. And this way, the kids want to come back. They want to be part of the community and work here.”

It is not to hard to see how versions of these dummies will be used for basic life support training and other healthcare courses, increasing their popularity.