November 22, 2009
What's Inside:
Heartland switching to mannequins for PALS training
After more than 25 years using live cats in its pediatric advanced life support (PALS) course, Heartland Regional Medical Center is making the switch to state-of-the-art mannequins.
The intent behind using cats always has been to provide as lifelike a situation as possible in training medical professionals to intubate the small airways of infants and other young children, Heartland has said in the past, and cats’ airways are similar to those of children. The hospital drew criticism from PETA in June for its use of cats, but maintained that the cats were treated humanely and that they were its best training option — until recently.
“One of the issues is that any time you do training, you want to use best practices,” said Charlie Shields, Heartland’s chief marketing/communications officer. “For many years, that was live cats, but now we have these simulators (that) very closely simulate what happens in a child.”
Heartland has purchased two of the mannequins — which cost $46,000 each — and will use them for the first time in its Sept. 30 PALS course. The mannequins can be made to simulate a variety of conditions, such as airway constriction and swelling of the throat and tongue.
The decision to use mannequins wasn’t made as a result of the contact PETA made with the hospital earlier in the summer, Mr. Shields said, but “as technology develops, certainly PETA has brought this to the forefront.”
“This probably is the closest we’ve seen to a representation of a live situation,” he added of the mannequins.
Erin Wisdom can be reached
at ewisdom@npgco.com.
This story has 6 comments. Click here to join in on the discussion.
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This is complete BS!!! The FACT is that a cat's airway is close in comparison to an infants! I would rather see them using cats to "perfect" their intubation techniques, than to use a damn NON LIFE LIKE maniquin, and NOT SAVE A KIDS LIFE because they learned to intubate a piece of rubber doll! WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP YOU PETA LOVERS! The cats were FREE, and now we have to by $46,000 dolls? DAMN what the heck is this world coming to.... HEY PETA, DON'T COMPLAIN ABOUT THE COST OF YOUR MEDICAL BILLS EVER AGAIN!!!!!
are they gonna stop comments for this heartland article too?
i will withhold judgment on this till i try the new mannequins next time im due to recertify, i figure if they are over 40k each, they may be an improvement on the cats, yes the cats are similar, but some of the new generation mannequins out there are as close to the real thing as the real thing. i have heard a lot of positives about these new tools and look forward to trying them out.
and as far as PETA goes..... ROFL get a life, these are the same people that see a homeless man and his dog and wonder... is that dog being fed?
Thank goodness! Mannequins with the exact anatomy of a human is obviously going to be way better than a cat. Plus, the cats don't have to suffer anymore. PETA may not make the best decisions sometimes, but I think they were right in this case.
there needs to be an intrest group for the ethical treatment of dummies, oh i forgot it's called congress..........
LumpyRN, I agree with you on this one. I'm curious if the mannequins are newborn baby size or preemie size.
Wouldn't the true test in ability be to be able to intubate a premature baby not a full term one?
As a mom of a 28 weeker my first reaction was to use the cats, but if these mannequins can simulate the scenario's then maybe technology is a good thing. When you have an infant who is purple, not breathing and has such small airways...can all of that be simulated, the urgency to get oxygen to the infants brain before any damage is done?