May 1-7 is Emergency Preparedness Week at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC). This year’s theme is “Be Ready for Anything”. Throughout the week we will share information related to emergency preparedness at TBRHSC and tips for personal emergency preparedness.
TBRHSC’s emergency and disaster plans involve collaboration with a wide variety of community partners. Thunder Bay Fire Rescue, Thunder Bay Police Service, Ontario Provincial Police and other external stakeholders help to inform hospital preparedness and response.
The Hospital regularly participates in exercises with external partners. For example, hospital representatives recently participated in a tabletop exercise simulating an emergency response following an ice storm alongside City of Thunder Bay Municipal Emergency Control Group members.
The Emergency Preparedness department is already planning collaborative exercises for 2022, including a tabletop exercise simulating a heliport emergency as well as a Code Red to Green drill involving mock patients and Thunder Bay Fire Rescue.
If you are interested in learning more about this or any other emergency preparedness activities, please reach out to your manager or the Lead, Emergency Preparedness.
Preparedness Spotlight:
The Emergency Preparedness team works closely with Interprofessional Education (IPE) on training initiatives.
We asked Interprofessional Education how they help to ensure that TBRHSC is Ready for Anything.
Bruno Tassone and Brittney McLaughlin (Interprofessional Educators):
“Interprofessional Education (IPE) certainly does help to ensure that TBRHSC is Ready for Anything. Simulation is one method that we embed into many projects and initiatives. Simulation helps amplify a real experience as an educational tool to help develop knowledge, skills and attitudes. It is done in a safe learning environment where we uphold the basic assumption that “every participant is intelligent, capable, cares about doing their best and wants to improve”. Simulation can take many forms. Systems focused simulation (SFS) is certainly one way that we help to ensure that TBRHSC is Ready for Anything. The keyword is system; this form of simulation allows a proactive approach to test a system and/or process with an opportunity to identify any latent safety threats that may emerge. At the centre of SFS is patient safety, and it is through the identification of the latent safety threats that changes can be made to our current processes. An interprofessional collaborative approach is essential as everyone who participates in the SFS has a unique perspective and offers valuable insight in how we can improve patient care. Some examples of SFS that took place over the past year are: aggressive patient in the Emergency Department, the vaccine clinic and annually IPE takes part in the minimum staff drill, which in many ways takes the form of SFS.”