The Operating Theatre Journal - Journal - Page 19
Aston University and Simulation Man launch
overweight manikin for medical student training
• Two manikins, jointly developed by Aston University College of
Health and Life Sciences and Simulation Man, will be produced
• With a quarter of adults in England living with obesity, this world-昀椀rst
realistic overweight manikin will be a vital training tool
• The female manikin, dubbed R42, was launched at the Association
for Simulated Practice in Healthcare (ASPiH) conference in Brighton.
Ruqayyah - ODP
My name is Ruqayyah and I’m an
ODP from the Chilterns in the UK.
I came to NZ with my husband
in December 2020. The whole
process took us 6 months from the
昀椀rst time I contact Prudence at
ACCENT. She was there for us at
every step of the process from job
interview practice to providing
snacks
for
our
mandatory
isolation.
I contacted Prudence on a whim
one evening whilst we were living
in Stockholm and were getting
more and more frustrated with
the Covid-19 situation there. We
had always wanted to holiday in
NZ but never thought we would
have the chance to live there.
Aston University College of Health and Life Sciences and Simulation
Man have jointly launched a new, overweight female manikin for use in
training nursing, pharmacy and medical students.
R42, so named as it represents the 42% of the US population who are
overweight, is a realistic shape, rather than having a 昀氀at back, to better
simulate an overweight patient, and has breasts. It will be used to train
nursing, pharmacy, physician associate and medical students at Aston
University to carry out medical procedures such as cardiopulmonary
resuscitation (CPR), intubation, inserting IV lines and catheterisation,
as well as for manual handling.
Typically available manikins used to train students for medical
procedures are slim, but such procedures can be more dif昀椀cult in
patients carrying weight, or having breasts. Manual handling overweight
manikins, meanwhile, are often little more than beanbags. R42,
however, has an internal skeleton to make it more realistic to move and
handle. Students can therefore learn how to care for and move larger
patients with dignity.
According to the latest statistics from NHS England, 63.8% of adults
in England are overweight, with 25.9% of those classi昀椀ed as living
with obesity. Adverse incidents relating to patient safety double with
overweight and obese patients so better training is vital.
The collaboration between Aston University and Simulation Man to
develop an overweight manikin resulted from a call made by Professor
Liz Moores, Deputy Dean of the College of Health and Life Sciences, to
Jacob Rahman at Simulation Man, asking for an overweight manikin.
In the absence of such a manikin, Rahman suggested working on one
together. He believes that R42 is the world’s 昀椀rst overweight training
manikin that looks and feels realistic.
Professor Moores says:
“Lots of patients are overweight so it’s useful to have experience with
overweight patients. As a female obese manikin, this manikin also has
large breasts. We want our students to know how to resuscitate people
irrespective of body type.
Prudence made that possible.
The process was super easy, and
the longest time was waiting for
documents from my university
and police certi昀椀cates. I thought
I would interview at several
hospitals, but Prudence knew
exactly what I wanted. My 昀椀rst
interview was successful, and I
am now working at the biggest
private hospital in NZ.
As an anaesthetic technician
in NZ there aren’t really many
differences between the work,
however it does of course take
a little while to 昀椀nd your feet.
There was some medical ‘lingo’ I
had to learn but at least we could
have a laugh in the coffee room
about it afterwards.
My shifts are nice: working 10 or 8
hours a day with my weekends and
evenings off. There’s always time
to do a quick weekend retreat
and get back into work by Monday
morning. Everyone is super nice,
and I’ve really enjoyed meeting so
many different people, as NZ is so
culturally diverse.
The hardest part of moving to
NZ has been the time difference
between the UK and NZ, varying
between 11 and 13 hours, so
you can’t just ring your family
when you miss them. However,
FaceTime and Skype has made it
feel like you’re still very much
still with them. We’ve attended
one wedding, two engagements
and one baby shower all over
FaceTime so I think we’re getting
pretty good at that! With the
international borders hopefully
opening very soon it isn’t too long
until we see our family. Although
it is far (in fact the furthest you
could ever be) the lifestyle, the
food, the culture, the nature, and
the people make up for all of it.
We will be looking to apply for
permanent residency when the
time comes and can really see
ourselves living here for several
years. We’ve been here a year
and we can say it now feels like
home. Unfortunately like most
countries, the rental / buying
housing situation is tough here,
so be well informed before you
come. I miss the UK and being
next to the rest of EU. But here
in NZ there is everything you can
think of. From sunny beaches to
snowy mountain tops, it’ll take a
while before you get bored!
My advice to anyone planning on
making the move, go for it! You
have nothing left to lose and
everything to gain. It’s a beautiful
country and I’m so happy to call it
my home for now.
“Whilst diversity in manikins has already extended to skin tone, age
and more recently certain disabilities, there are no realistic looking and
feeling obese manikins available in the UK. The development of R42 is
really important.”
Rahman says:
“This will be a global product. I think we have thus far really
underestimated the impact and global reach this will have. The key
aspect is students will learn how to have empathy with obese patients,
how to be inclusive, and to make sure that they are aware of unconscious
bias. There is a case for every medical and nursing university in the
world to have one.”
The R42 manikin was of昀椀cially launched at the Association for Simulated
Practice in Healthcare (ASPiH) conference, held in Brighton from 6
to 8 November 2023. The 昀椀rst R42 manikin will be installed at Aston
University for students to use before the end of 2023, with a second in
early 2024.
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Issue 398
November
2023
19
