Virginia Biomedical Association

VBA NEWS vol.1 no.1 April 1994

.... SCHUSS !!!

Well, it has finally happened. For years there has been a desire by many Biomeds to establish a statewide organization in Virginia. On February 5th a very successful organizational meeting was held at the Wintergreen Ski Resort, which was attended by interested parties from across the state.

After a full day of skiing (for most of us), we were treated to dinner by the Hewlett Packard Company and afterwards got down to business. Mary Frye and Steve Haupt took the podium and related the results of their (and Ryland Paxton's) tireless efforts in researching and organizing the startup of the Virginia Biomedical Association. Greg Johnson, president of the North Carolina Biomedical Association gave up some time from his buisy schedule to speak at our meeting and offered his encouragement and guidance. An open discussion was held prior to adjournment.

This purpose of this meeting was to communicate the progress of the V.B.A. as well as to solicit feedback and recruit others who are willing to contribute the time and resources needed to help get this organization established. This has also been an opportunity for many of us to become reacquainted with old friends, as well as meeting colleagues from other cities. If the enthusiasm of those present is any indication, the Virginia Biomedical Association will become very successful.

IN THE BEGINNING:

Objective:

The objective of the Virginia Biomedical Association is basically similar to all other associations assembled in the past. Our main objective is education and with education comes many sub-categories. We feel education is essential not only between local biomeds, but throughout the state. We have a need to work and communicate together to form some type of technical and social alliance.

Benefits:

The benefits of forming an association are great. Cost effectiveness would allow vendors and manufacturers to train the biomeds at a reduced cost. With AAMI imposing all CBET's to continue to be active, we must perform or participate in certain activities relating to the biomedical field. The biomedical society will hopefully bring this closer to home. Information gathering is a huge benefit, i.e., how is a particular manufacturer supporting a hospital to the east of Va, compared to supporting a hospital to the west. Also keeping current with national biomedical associations information, i.e., what is SBET doing for our local society, what is AAMI doing and what is ECRI accomplishing.

Format:

Presently we are meeting on a need to be basis since the origination of the association. We hope to accomplish state semi-annual meetings in the future and regional meetings which will be held between each state meeting either once or twice. Board meetings will be held once every two months. Two of the meetings, hopefully, can be accomplished during the state meetings due to time and cost effectiveness.

The Process of Starting the Association:

Naturally we are still learning, but the start was interesting. I considered starting an association in the southwestern region of Va and Mary was interested in starting a statewide association. Through information furnished to Mary by a manufacturer about my interest, she contacted me to add the southwestern part of Va to the society. Once we contacted each otherand covered the reasons why we needed to do this, we put together an organizational meeting. Mary suggested conducting the meeting at a ski resort to involve some type of recreational activity with business. The idea was successful since we had over 70 participants. Once we realized the interest in the association the work had just begun. The question is, "How do we keep the interest and can we follow through with our proposals and make them realities". Virginia is a large state and keeping opportunities available is a difficult task.<R>

We created a flow chart of tasks to be completed in order to set up the process. In the past six months we have accomplished the following:

1). Establishing the purpose of starting an association
2). Having an organizational meeting
3). Contacting a lawyer concerning becoming incorporated
4). Contacting an accountant concerning non-tax status
5). Joining SBET as a state chapter
6). Acquiring information on other associations concerning their accomplishments and failures
7). Setting up a database of over 200 members
8). Setting up a meeting reviewing by-laws to be accepted during the summer
9). Establishing task-forces to accomplish particular objectives
10). Scheduled a technical seminar
11). Scheduled a statewide election meeting
12). Our first newsletter will be mailed in April

Steering Committee:

Presently Steve Haupt, Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Mary Frye of Riverside Hospital in Gloucester, and Ryland Paxton of Henrico Doctor's Hospital in Richmond are the basic steering committee. We selected ideas and information from present associations throughout the country and past associations that were organized in Va. We obtained the information and tried to organize the present association based on their accomplishments and failures. Thankfully our neighboring state North Carolina has an excellent organization and has been very helpful with information and support.

Hopefully, we as a biomedical team can make this a success. It has taken considerable time and work for us to start the association and will take additional work from other people to complete our task. We believe the need is here and we will be able to organize our thoughts and ideas to make it a success.

Steven D. Haupt, CBET,
Roanoke Memorial Hospital
Mary Frye, CBET,
Riverside Walter Reed Hospital

NURSING AND CLINICAL ENGINEERING: A WORKING RELATIONSHIP

The most important tool that a technician has is a good relationship with the nursing staff. Being a female technician I have had to work vey hard sometimes to develop a working relationship with other technicians (being mostly male). My advantage has been that I've had an easier time creating a good relationship with the nurses (being mostly female). There are a multitude of benefits in having a rapport with nursing. There are less nuisance calls, less damage to devices and a very positive growth for you and your department. To begin, you need to assess yourself, delete negative attitudes and plan what changes have to be made.

Typically a biomed department is based on well educated, very technically oriented males. We all still have all kinds of prejudices; like who is responsible for what type of chores, (i.e., males-technical, females-non technical). The game of us against them is very strong. It's only self defeating. Just doing the repair or correcting the mistake doesn't really accomplish long run gains. The cycle is work, no growth. Educating the nurses and (just as important) being educated by the nurse, has a lot more positive potential. It's a two part system; being heard and listening.

The nursing staff may not ever want to know the complete electronic details of their ECG monitor, but they can benefit from other information about the device. Touch base with all the department heads, let them know how you can help them. Set up quick ten minute inservices on equipment. Mingle; dont try to be the omnipotent device guru that mysteriously heals sick equipment.

If you want to be heard, you have to listen. Find out what their needs are. Ask how procedures are done, let them be the teacher. I learned quickly that by listening and watching how they do their jobs, I saved myself a lot of time on nuisance calls.

The job of every hospital employee is patient care. The equipment is here to help the nurses and the patients and we are here to help then deal with the technology.

Mary Frye, BS, AAS
Riverside Walter Reed Hospital

MEETING MINUTES:

First general meeting of the VBA, February 5, 1994

1. Steve Haupt reviewed documents distributed to attendees. These documents included:: a. A copy of a letter from the SBET confirming membership.; b. The ICC newsletter and certification info; c. Membership list; d. SBET benefits information; e. Membership application
2. Greg Johnson, NCBA president spoke on the educational role of the NCBA and noted that although a few people started the VBA, now it is the members' responsibility to carry on and support the VBA.
3. Mary Frye spoke of the importance of the VBA and asked that members send in their applications only, as we are not collecting dues yet.
4. An open discussion and question & answer period followed before adjournment.

Meeting in Roanoke, February 28, 1994

Members present: Mary Frye, Steve Haupt, Tom Wright, Mike Carlton

Old Business:

1. The upcoming annual meeting was discussed, for educational opportunities and approval of bylaws. Also the agenda was discussed.

2. Groups and committees that would aid the organization were mentioned.

3. A dinner meeting was held with Mr. Les Atles from Marquette Electronics, who gave some insight on organizational benefits and risks. Les has been instrumental in helping establish several biomedical organizations.

New Business:

1. A bylaws meeting will be held in Richmond on March 31,1994 from 1:00 - 3:00 PM at Chippenham Hospital. Steve Germaine is the contact person at 804-323-8700.

Bylaws Meeting March 31, 1994

There were twelve members present for the meeting

1. With Steve Haupt as ad-hoc chairman, a copy of the NCBA bylaws were reviewed and amended to serve as a basis for the VBA bylaws. It was decided that a draft copy of the VBA bylaws would be reviewed at another meeting to be held before the annual meeting.

2. Mark Freeman presented a preliminary draft of the newsletter for review and discussion.

3. Virgil Smoot presented an opportunity for the VBA to sponsor a service training course on Hewlett Packard monitors.

4. The need for a VBA logo was discussed and it was decided to hold a contest to allow member to submit their ideas.

THE TEACHING ROLE OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

Recently the possibility of ECG or apnea electrode leads being plugged into an AC power cord has resurfaced. It seems that this has happened again in August of 1993. My initial reaction (again) was 'What kind of idiot would do this, it defies all common sense - from putting a round peg into a square hole, to exposing a person to power line voltages'. We would like to think that 'highly trained medical professionals' would know better.

Unfortunately, as most of us know, many medical personnel are not as knowledgable in some areas as they should be. For example, if we consider nursing, people become nurses for a variety of reasons, most based on compassion and desire to care for others. However, I doubt if anyone has ever become a nurse because they wanted to work with high-tech equipment. As we know, modern medical care is heavily dependant on what we deal with every day - technology. If we were to take people with little technical inclination, mix in some high-tech products that are not particularly user friendly, and add a smattering of cursory training programs, we have a recipe for trouble.

As Biomedical Technicians and Engineers, we are in a unique position to influence two of the above ingredients. If we look at training first, I can give two starkly contrasting examples based on my experiences at two different hospitals, showing the potential of becoming involved in a hospital's training program.

At hospital 'A' there was a firmly entrenched belief that 'Only Nurses Can Train Nurses' and the Biomedical Department was completely shut out of any role whatsoever in the training process. My experience was that the nurses knew equipment operation by rote, with little technical understanding of what they were doing, and so had trouble dealing with anything out of the ordinary. In addition, I could find no evidence of any practical understanding of electrical safety (I'm sure everyone slept through the obligatory electrical safety video). Mention the terms microshock or current leakage and you would just receive a blank stare. Hospital 'A' had a large centralized nursing education dapartment, and did a good job with training on medical topics.

Hospital 'B' had fewer nursing educators and was more decentralized. They also effectively utilized resources external to their department. The Biomedical Department in this hospital was one of those resources. In addition to a role as a consultant on technical issues, electrical safety instruction and some equipment operation training was conducted by the Biomedical Department. In contrast to Hospital 'A', the nursing staff at hospital 'B' routinely reported electrical safety problems (such as broken ground pins or damaged power cords), and generally seemed to be more aware of the potential dangers of electricity to their patients. As far as Equipment operation is concerned, nurses at Hospital 'B' had a better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of their equipment and had less trouble with unusual circumstances. Also, I found them more willing and able to help in troubleshooting problems over the phone, avoiding many after hours call-ins. An interesting side effect of this relationship was that the Biomedical Personnel also learned much about nursing and medical applications from working with the Nursing Education Department at Hospital 'B', and developed a better rapport with the nursing staff.

The other area that we can influence is the functionality of medical equipment. Doing what we do for a living, it takes little effort to realize where problems in equipment operation and service occur. By establishing and maintaining a relationship with equipment manufacturers, (not just the service rep, but sales and application support as well) your recommendations can be heard, and the manufacturer will have a source of product information with a unique perspective. Since most companies are genuinely interested in improving their products, your views will usually be welcome. So, in a roundabout way, we can also help teach manufacturers how to best implement their technology in our hospitals.

The Virginia Biomedical Association can play a role in developing these relationships with equipment manufacturers, who in turn can help with our primary goal of training. But, it is important to consider the goals of this training. Are we only interested in learning to repair the latest high tech gizmo? Or should we also learn about medical applications, to understand the purpose of what we do? And should we learn to teach, in order to disseminate and exchange knowledge from our area of expertise with others, and in the process become a more integral part of, and benefit to, the medical community?

Mark Freeman, CBET
Virginia Beach General Hospital