The Laboratory for Clinical Skills Development has been Being Set Up in TNMU

The Laboratory for Clinical Skills Development has been being set up in Ternopil National Medical University within the Ukrainian-Swiss project “Development of Medical Education”. In the last days of 2020, the coordinators of this program transferred to TNMU medical equipment necessary for this laboratory. All this is being set up in previously repaired special premises of the Center for Medical Simulation of our university.

The Ukrainian-Swiss project provided the university with basic equipment to help practice most of the practical skills performed by a family doctor or nurse. The list of necessary tools was prepared by practicing family doctors and nurses, experts of the Academy of Family Medicine of Ukraine and the project. The equipment includes both standard outpatient tools and mannequins for basic manipulations.

Thus, TNMU received a functional couch (Family Practice Table), a mobile table for instruments, thermometers (electronic, infrared), tonometers (electronic and mechanical) with cuffs of 4 sizes, cardiac stethoscopes, otoscopes, bulb for pneumatic otoscopy (insufflator bulb), replaceable funnels of different sizes, Jeanne syringes for rinsing the ear, scapulae for removing sulfur, scales, medical tapes, height gauge, reflex hammers, a set of tuning forks, protractor, negatoscope, Rabkin table, visual acuity table and smartphone app, Ambu bags for adults, for children, for newborns, glucometer, lancet, portable pulse oximeters, peak flowmeter. In addition, tympanocentesis kits were provided to our university to practice higher-level practical skills, as well as Wood’s lamp; nasopharyngeal airways of all sizes; intubation kit; iGel of all sizes; simulators for practicing injection: subcutaneous, intradermal, intramuscular, intravenous; intubation kit; training simulator to exercise airway patency; simulators for basic and advanced resuscitation in adults, in children and infants.

Within the project, TNMU received some quite expensive equipment: a defibrillator, a rhythm generation system, a simulator for female bimanual examination, a 12-channel electrocardiograph, an ultrasound machine, an advanced birth simulator, and a full-height patient mannequin.

The coordinators of the Ukrainian-Swiss project “Development of Medical Education” aim to improve the health care system by improving medical education. They pay special attention to development of competencies and skills by future family doctors and family nurses (i.e. primary care providers). This will give an opportunity for development of clinical skills by students, interns for provision of high quality services to patients.

The project team will also provide assistance in setting up the laboratory, organization of trainings (compiling a list of necessary equipment, training plan, its timing, interaction with students, evaluation), training of teaching staff, etc.

TNMU spokeswoman Yanina Chaikivska

Photos by the author