It’s a fair question, and one we often get asked!
Below are some of our top reasons for using a manikin in your training sessions:
1) REDUCES RISK
You are training to save lives – don’t risk a live volunteer as you train for a genuine emergency.
It isn’t always safe to expect a volunteer to wait on an exposed mountainside, hide beneath the rubble, or stay out in open water for prolonged periods of time. A manikin can be placed in situ several hours before training begins…and will never complain about being cold, sore or tired! Using manikins lets teams set up difficult training exercises in risk environments with a decreased risk of harm to others.
2) LEARNING NEW SKILLS CAN LEAD TO ACCIDENTS…
When learning new skills it is always best to use a manikin to minimize the risk of mistakes and consequent injury. Mistakes are easy to make when learning new skills – let a manikin face the consequence of these mistakes.
Working at Height training is the perfect example of an occasion where you would not risk human life. Suspension related injury can occur in under 2 minutes, and in 5 minutes, you can lose consciousness. Never expect a live person to ‘hang around’ in a harness whilst waiting to be rescued during training.
3) REALISTIC CASUALTIES
Real people don’t always make realistic casualties! If mimicking an unconscious casualty, a volunteer will always protect themselves, taking a deep breath to float for example, or moving limbs to prevent knocks.
4) ALL SHAPES AND SIZES!
Manikins come in all shapes and sizes, from a 5kg baby to a 260kg bariatric adult. Our manikins are designed to accurately represent an unconscious casualty, with correct human weight proportions.
This allows trainers to set up difficult scenarios to really test the skills of their teams.
5) THEY CAN HANDLE A TOUGH TIME!
People are inherently breakable! You’ll be reassured to know that we use the very best manufacturing techniques and the strongest materials to make our manikins. Most are constructed from the same flame retardant Polyester used in Police ballistic/stab vests.
Unlike plastic bodied manikins, our manikins are tough enough to be thrown from a second-story window, driven over by a bus and buried under rubble without damage. We always aim to make the strongest possible manikins to stand up to the rigours of your training.
6) DEVELOPED BY EXPERTS
Most of the manikins in the Ruth Lee range have been developed after identifying the need for a particular scenario related dummy (such as bariatric, mountain rescue or lifeguard training).
We want to make sure that you have the very best products for your training and Ruth Lee Ltd have worked closely with expert organisations such as the Royal Lifesaving Society (UK), Surf Lifesaving, the RNLI, The Royal Navy and many rescue training specialists to make sure they perform as desired.
7) USED BY ‘THE BEST’
Ruth Lee Ltd manikins are used worldwide in more than 50 countries and sold through a network of Distributors.
Customers range from small rescue training organisations to large multi-national organisations. We have previously sold manikins to the BBC, Exon Mobil, Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), Airbus, Shell, E.On, Siemens, Rolls Royce, Star Cruises and many more.
As well as supplying the Fire Service and other Emergency Services, we provide manikins for hospitals and care homes, leisure groups and hotel chains, funeral groups, Construction companies and the Armed Forces worldwide.
