P.O.P.S - ACM

Perioperative Patient Simulation - Acute Care Management (P.O.P.S. - ACM) was developed to assist in learning post-operative care of cardiac patients under three different circumstances - Cardiogenic Shock, Excessive Bleeding and Septic Shock.

Your task is to return the patient’s heart rate, arterial blood pressure, left atrial pressure, cardiac index and temperature to acceptable clinical levels and maintain patient stability within these levels for one hour of simulated patient time. In this simulation, time is speeded up by a factor of 60: one minute of real time is equivalent to an hour of time for the simulated patient. However, time stops while you are selecting your treatment options, so you have a chance to think about the intervention without further deterioration of the patient.

You may treat the patient with the following interventions:
Infusion medications
Bolus medications
Fluid replacement
Warming or cooling the patient
Cardiac pacing
Return patient to OR for re-exploration for bleeding or relief of tamponade

You may diagnose the patient using the following tools:
Edwards EV1000 hemodynamic monitor
Vital signs from the patient monitor
Visual indication of peripheral vasoconstriction
Fluid intake and output
Cardiac index
Chest X-ray to check for tamponade.

The application is intended to be used by individuals with some medical training and understanding of appropriate drug and fluid doses.