MEDUNSA UPGRADE - University of Limpopo

heartbeat’, palpate her stomach, perform internal
examinations, and generally facilitate the birthing
process.
There is ‘Shorty’, who is just over a metre tall and
whose muscles can be taken apart and put back
together again. There are partial-body manikins for
students to practice anything from relatively simple
procedures such as drawing blood, inserting
intravenous drips, checking for breast and prostate
cancer, giving injections for tennis elbow or extracting
water on the knee, through to more complex and even
dangerous procedures such as inserting central lines
into the heart, inserting chest drains, removing air from
the pleura, turning a breach baby, lumbar punctures,
and any number of procedures on babies and children.
To enable hands-on practice, several of each manikin
were acquired.
Treadwell is resolute. ‘Students must practice as
much as they need to. Observing can be valuable, but
not nearly as useful as doing it yourself – in a stressfree,
safe environment where you can cause no harm.’
She is particularly delighted when young medical
students come out of their first procedural practice
sessions with shining eyes, saying, ‘this is the first time
I have felt like a doctor!’
The centre is also an ideal environment for trauma
training and Treadwell anticipates the centre achieving
accreditation to do Basic Life Support, Advanced
Cardiac Life Support and Paediatric Advanced Life
Support courses for outside groups.
The Skills Centre is a highly sophisticated
environment that is making a dramatic difference to the
students of the Medunsa campus. ‘It will grow,’ says
Treadwell confidently, ‘and set firm new standards for
clinical teaching in simulation for Medunsa. It will
mean that students who leave here can be better
doctors, nurses and therapists because they are
competent and confident in what they do.’
P A G E 2 1