How Can Simulation-Based Training Narrow The Demand Supply Gap In Healthcare?
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has veritably exposed the lackluster side of the Indian healthcare system. Furthermore, the massive imbalance in demand-and-supply infrastructure in the country has also been uncovered by the same.
For instance, there are around 80,000 nursing homes across India offering valuable services to patients. However, due to the issue mentioned above, they were caught off-guard when the pandemic struck. Even before the pandemic, almost 98,000 people (throughout the world) lost their lives due to such mismanagement and dreary demand-and-supply substructure.
According to the WHO, almost 1 billion people in India lack admittance to the fundamental healthcare system. Another 100 million have been pushed into poverty while trying to access it. The facilities or resources for medical treatment in our country are pretty low as well.
The aspect of demand-and-supply can be seen in amongst the Indian medical professional community as well. For example, the population-doctor ratio in India is around 1:1456 while the WHO recommends it to be 1:1000. Many of the doctors are not even trained in latest in medical care because of unavailability of simulation based training in real life medical scenarios. The, unfortunately, prompts the citizens to choose ignorant or fraudulent medical care providers because of the lack of an alternative.
Nevertheless, this critical issue can be taken care of properly with the proper implementation of simulation-based training throughout the nation’s healthcare system. So, how is it going to change such a dire circumstance? Let’s learn more about it!
Simulation-based Training – The Beginning of an Era of a Better Healthcare System
According to a recent report, the supply-gap issue has been forestalling almost 28,000health centers in the community from working properly. It has also forecasted that the number of mismanaged centers will increase to around 45,000 by 2026. It’s not only the shortage of manpower BUT of “Trained“ manpower. However, according to an expert, this issue can be countered with proper simulation-based training. Here’s how it may help –
- The restructuring of medical education is the need of the hour and is being recognized as a major corrective step in the direction of bridging the gap. Even the government policy on medical education mention simulation based training and SIM Labs as the cornerstone of this change.
- In addition, the communication skills of the workers, in this regard, will improve as well. This way, they can take care of various circumstantial issues, like staff shortage or demands in hospital beds, time management, patient communication and coordination with medical teams pretty efficiently.
- According to an expert, the problem in the Indian healthcare system, the primary issue of its downfall, usually lies fundamentally on demand rather than the supply. For instance, according to a report, the demand regarding outpatient visits had exceeded 24% during the previous decade. So, if it can be fixed with the implementation of simulation-based training, then the current scenario of the medical industry will excel as well. Similarly, demand for trained manpower in all fields of Medical Science is only ever increasing and our training modalities are unable to keep up in terms of quality and quantity both.
The Role of e-Next ICU
As per a recent report, the demand for healthcare workers may rise to 80 million by the year 2030. However, employing untrained or inexperienced members will not be ideal for any institution at all. Hence, the leading tele-ICU services-providing organization in the region, e-Next ICU, is offering simulation courses regarding the same. Their portfolio includes –
- Mechanical Ventilation: The course is tailor made for young intensive care residents, nurses and technicians who need to handle critical patients on ventilators. They learn how to read the information on the ventilators and use it for better patient care from intubation to extubation
- ECMO: The ECMO course is ideal for a medical specialist who offers respiratory and cardiac support to a critical patient. It includes encountering a simulation-based, real-life case scenario, which will test the ability of the medical professional to react appropriately under pressure. There will also be a debriefing session provided by experts on the scenario upon its completion as well.
- Hemodynamic monitoring: Any doctor who wants to be comfortable managing an ICU patient needs to ace the understanding of hemodynamic physiology and management. Simulated scenarios put across real life challenges that they have to handle realistically.
- Critical Observership: The well-designed critical observership program will aim to improve the observational attributes of a doctor. This way, he/she will understand the issues a patient is dealing with efficiently. Moreover, the problems of mistreatment, which causes injury to almost 3% of patients, can also be avoided with such training.
In addition, e-Next ICU also offers short-term courses on Critical Care pearls, Critical care Nuring and many more.
Conclusion
Since the beginning of the last decade, the aspect of medical education has undergone several changes. However, it still could not ensure the absolute brilliance of the therapeutic practices. Hopefully, the introduction and implementation of simulation-based training can offer a decent insight in this regard. The simulated clinical trainings provided in the same might better the practical skills of a physician and make them much more confident. The impact on patient care and survival will be enormous if we are able to improve the demand-and-supply gap present in the Indian Healthcare Ecosystem with simulation based trainings
