Three 4th year medical students from Flinders Northern Territory Medical Program (NTMP) participated as patient-actors and support persons at the recent Practical Obstetric Multi-Professional Training (PROMPT) held at Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH).
Besides being a great learning opportunity for students and helping them to see what it is like being on “the other side of the fence”, using patient-actors improves safety and communication significantly more than training on a full-body mannequin.
Fourteen participants, including Midwives, and Obstetric and Anaesthetic trainees from RDH took part in the very successful day, working together in the clinical settings of Delivery Suite and the ground floor Birth Centre, in high fidelity, obstetric emergency simulations.
PROMPT is about better teamwork in obstetrics to reduce preventable harm in perinatal care. Current evidence supports integrated multi-professional teamwork training into clinical obstetric emergency scenarios. The RDH facilitators led the program focusing on knowledge, clinical skills, team work and communication.