Weta Workshop wizardry and a pig from the Wairarapa helped create some life-like organs for a laparoscopic course. NICKI BABBAGE of Wakefield Hospital tells the story of how it came about.
It began with the question, how best to provide nurses with practical training in laparoscopic camera skills?
In 2008 Wakefield nurses had highlighted a need for additional training in the technical skills required for assisting with camera work. We wanted something that was linked to the national education framework, focused on the experienced laparoscopic nurse, developed skills within the registered nurse scope of practice, and was both professional and practical.
A two-day course was developed in association with Whitireia Polytechnic. It covered a mixture of lectures and practical skills training required for a competent laparoscopic camera operator.
This task is performed by a small group of highly skilled theatre nurses who work here at Wakefield. In order to pass on these skills to our colleagues it was felt that some practical application was necessary.
The question became, how to go about achieving this end?
It was decided that we needed to replicate the human anatomy to successfully achieve this goal. The hours spent unwrapping minties and lifting lifesaver lollies onto sticks was not in any way a satisfactory exercise for understanding the intricacies of laparoscopic camera work.
By chance a staff member had a contact at Weta Workshop. We decided to email Weta and see if they would be interested in making an abdomen for us. We had all seen the pictures of Richard Taylor receiving his Oscar and marvelled at the effects in the Lord of the Rings movies, so we knew it was possible.
To our surprise, we received a reply almost immediately inviting us to meet with Richard Taylor and discuss what we had in mind. Richard had obviously done his homework and was very enthusiastic about what we wanted to achieve. He set about asking us to ‘feel’ various consistencies of gel-like material to ascertain the most realistic representation of our internal organs.
He told us that the human body was closest to a pig’s anatomy and felt the best way was to take a mould from a pig’s organs. For this to happen, we would have to arrange for some organs to be delivered to him at Weta.
There are no pigs killed in Wellington; the closest abattoir is in the Wairarapa. Staff at the abattoir were very helpful, and let us know when a female pig was going to “donate her organs”. We arranged collection and, after freezing the organs, dropped them off at Weta for the process to begin. We had our own workshop make up five lap trainers and with the Weta organs the process was complete. Each abdomen had a liver, gall bladder, kidneys, ureters, bladder, large and small bowel, uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries and cervix.
We connected the lap trainers to laparoscopic towers, and scenario-based workstations were set up for practical skills training. We had a trainer at each of the workstations with no more than four students per station, to allow for rotation of the roles. The course was a great success, with some participants taking photos on their cellphones to show their colleagues when they returned to work. The participants found it both educational and motivating. The course has been run twice with 20 participants at each, and hopefully it will be a regular feature on the academic calendar.
Wakefield Hospital achieved highly commended in the New Zealand Private Surgical Hospital Association’s Quality Awards with this initiative. Currently, two nurses at Wakefield hospital have completed the Registered Nurse First Surgical Assistant (RNFSA) course and two others are working towards this qualification. This laparoscopic course is seen as complementary to the RNFSA qualification, and it provides more experienced registered nurses with a “real feel” experience.
Nicki Babbage is general team leader theatre at Wakefield Hospital, Wellington.
