MUSCAT: The Medical Simulation Center (MSC) Oman Medical Specialty Board (OMSB) has been officially accredited as a Reference Center for the American Heart Association in the Middle East and North Africa (AHA-MENA) for 2018.
MSC has been an accredited centre of the American Heart Association since 2011 to provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation courses like Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS).
Upon this remarkable achievement, the Centre will be responsible for supervising the establishment of training centres for cardiac rehabilitation and the annual renewal of the centres, and providing advanced training courses for the preparation of trainers and supervisors and developing the training centres as per the accreditation standards. MSC as a Reference Center will provide the necessary training and guidance and perform the necessary auditing for the centres that provide AHA courses.
Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al Saeedi, Minister of Health, Chairman of OMSB Board of Trustees expressed his pleasure for this remarkable achievement. He acclaimed this achievement which will contribute to the improvement of medical training in cardiac and pulmonary resuscitation, as well as the methods of dealing with emergency cases.
He added that the Center will be responsible for accrediting governmental and private training centres of the American Heart Association in the Sultanate.
The accreditation for Reference Centers is based on several measures, including: the use of modern training methods as per AHA standards, the quality of the facilities provided by the centre, the scientific content of training courses, and the general satisfaction rate of trainees for the centre and its instructors.
Medical Simulation Center has completed eight years as an international centre for CPR courses following its accreditation by the American Heart Association in 2011. The centre is keen to train doctors and health professionals in the field of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.
As of March 2018, The number of participants trained by Medical Simulation Center has reached 3546 and the number of accredited trainers has reached 40, 18 of them for BLS Course, 15 for ACLS Course and 7 trainers for PALS Course. In addition, until March 2018, the centre has provided (441) training courses: (271) BLS Course, (94) ACLS Course and (61) PALS Course, (15) Heart Saver Courses, and administrative course for coordinators and medical programme executives.
Dr Houd bin Abdullah al Abri, Director of the Medical Simulation Center said: “These training courses are aimed for the doctors pursuing their residency training in Oman Medical Specialty Board, as well as other doctors and Allied Health Professionals like nurses and para-medics in governmental and private healthcare institutions.
The importance of these courses stems from the need to have highly qualified health professionals dealing with cardiac conditions.
These professionals are expected to be well-trained to deal with patients with cardiac arrests and strokes as a result of high blood pressure, diabetes and chronic cholesterol as well as sudden death cases in adults.
Dr Al Abri explained that in order to achieve excellence in medical education and ensure patient safety, the Medical Simulation Center provides many courses and workshops for OMSB residents and all health professionals in governmental and private health sector in Oman.
The Center provides a number of workshops for OMSB residents. In 2017, 1237 doctors participated in 175 workshop provided by the centre. Due to the residents’ awareness of the importance of medical simulation and the OMSB drive for integrating simulation in the OMSB training programmes, the specialty based workshops increased to 43 per cent compared to 2016. As part of the social responsibility of OMSB, the Center trained all OMSB staff in the Heart Saver and First Aids Programme provided by the American Heart Association.
MSC also organises Heart Saver course for students in schools and universities and for the community in general in order to spread awareness about first aid and CPR for the public.
— ONA
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