Skills - Ventilations

Skills: Ventilations

Ambu SmartMan© is the first product to give you real-time feedback as you practice performing ventilations.

The research shows that we need to improve how we give ventilations. We tend to provide inspirations too quickly and give too many ventilations, inadvertently giving too many and too quickly. With SmartMan's INTELLIGENT Manikin Solution, you will see how to improve your performance.

Both the rate and volume of inspiration as well as the rate at which you perform ventilations are displayed in real time in easy to understand colorful bar graphs. Thus you see the color bar and immediately know what you have to change to improve. For more information on how SmartMan works, download the document, "The Only Way to Perfect Ventilations".

Ventilations

Regardless of when you perform ventilations, they are an important part of CPR. They can be performed through mouth-to-mouth, use of a bag valve mask (BVM), or with a regulator. Even if an oral pharyngeal airway (OPA) or a nasal pharyngeal airway (NPA) has been inserted, the skill required to provide the correct amount of air with the correct pressure at the correct interval remains the same. For more detail on how to correctly perform ventilations, or you can download this document, "Getting Ventilations Right".

SmartMan now has a way for you to practice an advanced airway and for you to practice ventilating when the device is in place. See below for more details.

VENTILATIONS IN 30:2 CPR: There are several key aspects to getting these right. Inspiration tends to be too fast. It should take a full second to deliver the 500ml - 700ml as set in the new guidelines 2010. During CPR the second breath must begin as soon as the first breath has fully expired. Ventilations are an important part of CPR and must be learned correctly.

VENTILATIONS IN RESCUE BREATHING: In rescue breathing, it should take a full second to deliver the 500ml - 700ml as set out in the guidelines. Then there should be a wait before the start of the next ventilation. National averages show that the tendency is to put in too much airway too often. Ventilations are performed in many different circumstances both in-hospital and out of hospital.

VENTILATIONS WITH JAW THRUST: The jaw thrust is used to open the airway if you suspect a cervical spine injury such as when there is a collapse with a head injury, or from diving into shallow water.

SmartMan gives you real time feedback as you ventilate with the Jaw Thrust. If it has been performed correctly then ventilations can be performed easily with adequate volumes. If the airway is not open there will be resistance and low or no volume will go into the lungs. For more detailed information on jaw thrust download the document, "Correct Jaw Thrust Maneuver".

VENTILATIONS WITH AN OPA: Ambu Airway SmartMan has an anatomically correct tongue, trachea and esophagus. It is possible to place an OPA and perform ventilations when it has been placed.

VENTILATIONS WITH AN ADVANCED AIRWAY: Ventilations with an advanced airway are timed to begin on the release of chest. The Ambu Airway SmartMan creates the natural negative pressure which occurs in a real chest so that it measures whether you have achieved the 500ml - 700 ml in the 0.3 a second required in this skill. SmartMan gives you the real time feedback to help you master an advanced airway.

RAPID SKILLS IMPROVEMENT: Even though performing ventilations is more difficult than performing compressions, if you have the right training tool it can be accomplished to a high level of competence in a very short time. Independent research has shown that with just minutes of practice on SmartMan, EMTs and paramedics improved their performance substantially. Correct duration of inspiration increased from 34% to 80%, and volume of inspiration and ventilation rate improved from 63% to 93%.

For more information download this SmartMan Announcement.