The design of new, innovative equipment can lead to efficiencies in the healthcare system, while also helping deliver outstanding patient care. Ruth Lee Ltd was therefore excited to supply a Patient Handling Manikin to Canadian-based equipment designers Melior Motus™ via its Canadian distributor ALG Safety so that they could safely deliver product training for their innovation, the PronatorPlus™.
Melior Motus™, Latin for “better movement”, was founded in 2020 by Dr. Stephen Beed, an ICU Physician and Professor of Anaesthesia and Critical Care Medicine. With first-hand experience at the bedside, the team at Melior Motus™ is committed to developing safer and more efficient patient-handling solutions.
The PronatorPlus™, Melior Motus‘ first product, was developed to eliminate barriers to prone ventilation of ICU patients. Traditional proning methods are slow, inefficient, and physically demanding, and Dr. Beed recognized the need for a better solution, made particularly acute by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The PronatorPlus™ allows a 3-person clinical team to easily and quickly prone a ventilated patient with the assistance of a ceiling or portable lift, with no manual effort. In addition, the PronatorPlus™ allows just a 2-person team to perform the crucial head checks.
Courtney McPhee is a Product Representative at Melior Motus™, and a Registered Nurse. She told Ruth Lee Ltd;
“Melior Motus‘ vision is to apply clinical expertise and bedside intelligence to developing products for safer patient handling, so nurses never lift again. Our initial training model and provincial roll-out in Nova Scotia was helped made possible by the procurement of our Ruth-Lee manikin!
As a nurse, this manikin is very helpful in envisioning a more realistic patient weight when practising safe patient handling. We often get a pleasant surprise from healthcare professionals when they see Ruth-Lee for the first time, a manikin specifically made for this purpose is not often seen in our clinical setting. It is sturdy for mobilization scenarios, unlike more fragile “medically-feature focused” manikins.”
For many businesses designing innovations for the healthcare sector, a demonstration is very important and Patient Handling manikins can be very beneficial for this. Courtney went on to say;
“We have trained 11 ICUs across Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island using the Ruth Lee Patient Handling Manikin. These training sessions ranged over 27 days, targeting approximately 200 people who have used it for their sessions.
It has allowed us to limit the amount of product specialists required at a training session from 3 to 2 people. It also allows us to safely troubleshoot while our “patient” is suspended in the air or being lowered into a prone position. Being able to do this makes learners feel less rushed when seeing the PronatorPlus™ for the first time. It is also conducive to learning because trainers/trainees are more comfortable to be hands-on and less afraid to make mistakes.”
