Key Features to Look for in a Hospital Bed for Medical Training and Clinical Use
Medical students must familiarize themselves with the functions and features of hospital beds. It is a vital part of their education because most patients they treat in clinical settings will lie on hospital beds. Students must know how to control all the unique functions of a hospital bed to improve the comfort and care of their patients.
Are you searching for a hospital bed for medical training and clinical use at your facility? Here are the top six key features to look for in a hospital bed.
1) Safety Mechanisms
The most significant difference between hospital beds and regular beds is the safety mechanisms installed on them. For instance, most hospital beds have side rails on the left and right sides to help patients lift themselves in and out of bed if they can. The newest hospital beds even have locking mechanisms installed on the rails to keep them securely in place.
Would you like more sophisticated safety features incorporated into your hospital bed? Look for sophisticated hospital beds with built-in alarms, brake systems, and weight capacity indicators for maximum patient protection. These safety features come in handy in various medical training simulations.
The alarms go off if the side rails are lowered or the bed is adjusted without authorization. The sound of the alarm will alert a nurse or doctor that the patient has gotten out of bed. The weight capacity indicators help accommodate larger patients you need to place in the bed. The brake systems prevent the patient, nurse, or doctor from accidentally moving their bed when it is unneeded.
2) The Height Adjustability of the Bed
Your medical students must become accustomed to adjusting hospital beds, a common practice in a clinical setting. Patients need their beds adjusted to accommodate their injuries or to perform specific treatments and procedures on them. That is why medical students must learn how to adjust the beds in different scenarios without risking injury or discomfort to the patient.
You’ll want to find a hospital bed that allows students to adjust the patient’s height, foot, knee, and head positioning. The bed should come with an electronic control panel that will enable students to make these adjustments with just the push of a button. The electronic control option will save time and allow patients to receive their treatments faster and with less discomfort.
On a side note, the newest adjustable hospital beds have energy-efficient designs that consume less electricity when using the electronic control panel. If you care about energy efficiency, look for a bed with an energy savings label or something similar.
3) Durable Bed Construction Quality
Hospital beds are supposed to have heavy-duty construction quality to prevent them from breaking or deteriorating. We recommend you choose a hospital bed made of heavy-duty aluminum or reinforced steel because these are durable materials that will ensure your bed has a long lifespan.
Another great thing about these durable materials is that they resist corrosive elements like sanitizing chemicals. They are less likely to incur wear and tear from being adjusted up and down every day. The best part is that you don’t need to perform much maintenance on them either.
4) Compatible with a Pressure-Relieving Mattress
The hospital bed describes the frame construction that holds the mattress in place. So, you will need a hospital bed that supports the best mattress possible for patients, which is a pressure-reliving mattress. It is the type of mattress often used in real hospital beds because it provides pressure relief to a patient’s injuries and sores. This relief comes from the advanced scientific materials used to make the mattress, such as air-filled cells and memory foam.
An added benefit of this mattress is its extreme comfort level. It feels soft and cozy, so patients can relax and sleep comfortably on it. The mattress also has antimicrobial and water-resistant covers, making sanitizing and infection prevention much more straightforward.
5) Easy Mobility with Lock Features
Hospital beds don’t remain static in one place. The nurses and medical staff often need to move patients from one room to another without removing them from their beds. So, they will move the beds while the patients are still lying in them. Your students must learn to do the same.
Find a hospital bed with easy mobility. It will have wheels underneath that rotate smoothly 360 degrees and don’t get stuck when maneuvering it around turns and corners. The frame construction will be durable and lightweight enough for the average person to move it around without struggling.
A good hospital bed also has locking mechanisms for the wheels, so you can park it in a room without the risk of it rolling away. Medical students must practice quickly moving beds with patients through busy hallways and parking them in narrow rooms. Of course, you don’t need to put a real person in the bed when training them initially. Just put a full-size manikin in it instead.
6) Certified and Compliant with Government Regulations
Many countries, such as the United States, have government regulations overseeing the quality and safety standards of hospital beds. To give your medical students the most accurate training possible, verify that the facility is certified and compliant with local or national regulations and laws.
For instance, if your medical school is in the United States, look for a bed with a U.S. Food and Drug Administration seal. That seal indicates the FDA has approved the bed because it is deemed safe for medical use. Hospital beds in other countries might have one or more ISO certifications, confirming their compliance with international standards.
Find the Ideal Hospital Bed
Pristine Medical is one of the few online suppliers selling high-quality electronic hospital beds for medical schools with clinical settings. The beds are realistic and have many of the same functions and features as hospital beds.
Check them out to see which ones are right for your medical school.