Airway Drill 1A
From WickedSim
This scenario is also available as a PDF [1] but we strongly recommend that you download the zipped folder [2] containing the scenarios and view them using SimMan software!
Contents |
A slightly improved scenario
On a previous page --- Scenario - Airway Drill 1 --- we explored a really basic SimMan scenario. Here we revise and improve on this scenario. As you did before, run SimMan (logging on as WickedSim) and enter the Scenario Editor. This time, load the scenario called AirwayDrill1A.
You'll immediately see that things are different. Even though there is one extra state (Start desaturation) things are far easier to read. We've cleaned up the page in the following ways:
1. The Explanatory notes are more legible; 2. Flow is better --- there are fewer confusing arrows; 3. Events (Hudson mask, Ambu bag oxygen) are more mnemonic; 3. The states are less 'busy'; 4. The central state has become a 'switching station' for other states!
Let's explore these improvements.
Explanatory notes
In Drill 1A we've made the comments and explanatory note box more readable by inserting hard carriage returns into the text. You too can do this --- click on the relevant comment, and re-format it at will.
Better flow
Lots of arrows linking states are very confusing. Better to use the alternative method of linking states by clicking on the chain (o-o-o-o) logo at the top left of the screen in Scenario Editor, and then clicking and dragging to a blank area within scenario editor, rather than the more usual approach of dragging to another state. A window will pop up allowing you to specify the state.
In addition, see how we return almost immediately from the Hudson mask oxygen and Ambu bag oxygen states to the central state. We therefore no longer need complex links from these states to several other, later states.
More mnemonic events
In our prior, primitive script, the Oxygen tab was used to move between various states, a confusing and rather silly idea. How did we improve things?
In the scenario editor, we clicked on Edit and then Edit Event Menus. We then added two new events. One (Oxygen-Ambu) we simply dragged from the Laerdal ABC menu tree to the 'root' of that tree; the second we added (Hudson Mask) by right clicking and saying Add Event.
Note that because Oxygen was in use, we weren't allowed to hide this item until we'd gone back to the scenario and changed all of the tabs so that not one of them specified Oxygen. Only then were we allowed to go back to re-edit the event menus, and hide Oxygen!
Less busy states
When you start out making scenarios, there's always the temptation to drag extra stuff into a state. Try to minimise this. Elegant is good!
The central 'switching' state
There are several advantages in having a central state. One has already been alluded to --- the ability to transiently flip into a state such as Ambu bag oxygen, do something (here start a transient improvement in oxygenation) and then return with the ability to start other interventions. Other states become less busy in consequence.
See how multiple trends can co-exist (e.g. desaturation and improvements in oxygenation). Even more elegant is the ability to set up certain events which will happen in the future. Look at the new state we introduced, called Start desaturation. Not only do we start the trend hypoxiadrill1, we also set up another event which will happen in the future, even if we leave the current state (as we always do, after a second).
This event is the required complete obstruction at three minutes. We implement this by setting infinite resistance to airflow in both lungs at three minutes. Double click on the Airway entry in the Start desaturation state to see how by clicking on the appropriate boxes, this can be implemented.
