In March 2023 a team from Ruth Lee Ltd, together with our US Distributor Rescue Technology attended the Association of Safe Patient Handling Professionals Conference in Glendale, Arizona.
The Association (ASPHP) was formed as a non-profit corporation to provide a venue for individuals interested in safe patient handling, with a mission to advance the science and practice of safe patient handling and mobility. They offer advice, guidance, certification, and professional development opportunities to healthcare professionals in the US and other nations.
During the pandemic, we experienced a huge rise in demand for patient-handling manikins in the UK, when trainers needed a way to facilitate essential training whilst maintaining safe distancing. Such was the improvement to their training, that many SPHM trainers made a permanent adaptation to their programmes to continue using manikins.
With this in mind, we started to look beyond the UK and came across the Association of Safe Patient Handling Professionals Conference and knew it would be the ideal opportunity to introduce manikins into the US!
WHAT WE LEARNT AT THE ASSOCIATION OF SAFE PATIENT HANDLING PROFESSIONALS CONFERENCE
The Conference in Glendale was a fantastic event, showcasing the best innovations, equipment and practices seen in the healthcare profession, all aimed at safeguarding the health and well-being of workers, whilst promoting outstanding care.
At our booth, we demonstrated our Patient Handling and Bariatric training manikins, and we were made to feel very welcome by visitors and organisers of the show. Visitors were impressed with the option for creating amputee scenarios in training, and also the ability to replicate a bariatric patient.
Below is a roundup of our main learnings from the event:
- Patient Handling manikins are seen as an innovation for SPHM in the US – they are both needed and desired by healthcare professionals. Common comments were ‘why haven’t we seen anything like this for patient handling before?’
- US Healthcare professionals are very open-minded to using manikins in training – innovation is seen as an important part of continuing to improve.
- As in the UK – there is a concern that SPHM is not given the priority it deserves. Despite high instances of Musculoskeletal disorders MSDs and related litigation, many hospital management teams do not give it the attention it deserves and SPHM professionals work hard to change this!
- Nurses, OTs and other caregivers all expressed concern about how they can provide the best care whilst safeguarding their own health.
- Healthcare managers committed to SPHM know that their teams need effective training to minimise risk. They want to avoid costly staff absenteeism plus the chance of litigation. They also want a healthy and happy workforce!
- It is currently very difficult, almost impossible, to train SPHM for more complex patients such as amputees and bariatrics.
- Safe Patient Handling and Mobility, plus Workplace Violence programmes have many synergies and often go hand-in-hand. Given the more urgent focus on WPV, SPHM professionals should leverage this attention for their own training too.
- Bariatric patients present specific issues and more training is required
- Americans are very friendly and welcoming!
During the conference, we were pleased to meet up with some familiar faces too, including Lynda Enos RN, BSN, MS, COHN-S, CPE, Ergonomist & SPHM Consultant who has spent several months trialling our Patient Handling manikin in numerous scenarios ahead of the conference. You can read her feedback on the manikins here. Lynda was a speaker, presenting on Creating a Sustainable SPHM Voice In Healthcare Violence and it was nice to finally meet ‘face-to-face’ instead of online as she has provided the Ruth Lee Team with excellent feedback on the manikin, as well as valuable guidance on how SPHM is managed in the US.
We also met up with the Melior Motus™ team, who were fellow exhibitors. Since purchasing their Patient Handling manikin they have been able to train 11 ICUs across Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, targeting approximately 200 people who have used it for their sessions. You can read their report here. It was very exciting for us to meet the team and see how they use their manikin to demonstrate their innovative creation, The PronatorPlus™, which allows a 3-person clinical team to easily and quickly prone a ventilated patient with the assistance of a ceiling or portable lift, with no manual effort. A very impressive piece of equipment!
Sarah Hampson, International Development Manager at Ruth Lee Ltd said,
“Thank you to the conference organisers for putting on such a wonderful event. We had an amazing time and especially enjoyed working with other vendors (HoverTech and Melior Motus™ ) to demonstrate the use of manikins in SPHM training.
I always love to visit the US and this time was no exception – everyone was so welcoming, and it was fantastic to see such enthusiasm from visitors for our manikins. For many, it was a revelation to learn that there are dedicated manikins created specifically for SPHM training and they were especially excited to be able to replicate an amputee patient which can be so difficult to prepare for.
It’s encouraging to see that there is a growing community in the US that is so dedicated to SPHM, and who are keen to find products that will innovate the way they train – ultimately to avoid injury whilst providing the very best care for their patients.”
