WINNEMUCCA - Educating area emergency medical service personnel just got a lot easier thanks to funding through a statewide improvement initiative.
Humboldt General Hospital EMS Rescue was awarded $20,000 through the Nevada Statewide EMS System Improvement Project to help fund a wireless SimMan - a simulation mannequin that will help crew members maintain competencies, skill proficiencies and recreate calls for learning and quality assurance.
The funding will cover approximately one-third of the $67,890 cost to purchase the computerized mannequin. The remaining funding will come through Humboldt General Hospital - funding that local EMS officials say is an important and necessary investment in this region's pre-hospital care.
Humboldt General Hospital EMS Rescue Education Coordinator Ken Whittaker said, "This SimMan really expands our education abilities."
Whittaker explained that rural agencies, like HGH EMS Rescue, have limited opportunities to master competencies that will improve pre-hospital outcomes.
"Our call volume just isn't high enough to support the kind of educational opportunities our people need," he said.
Whittaker noted that if HGH EMS Rescue were located in a more urban area, members would have access to cadaver labs, high volume operating rooms and other modalities that could help them maintain and upgrade their skills.
"But in a remote rural area like north-central Nevada, those amenities don't exist or they are very limited in scope," he said, "so the solution for us was a wireless SimMan."
The local agency already has a wired simulation man and child, but Whittaker said because the mannequins are not meant to be portable, EMS learners are largely restricted to the ambulance station.
With this new unit, however, Whittaker said HGH EMS will be able to educate other rural providers in their home service areas, such as Lovelock, Battle Mountain and McDermitt.
Local mine rescue teams are also anxious to receive on-site instruction that will closely simulate what an actual emergency for them might entail.
Perhaps most important, said Whittaker, is that this new mannequin will give students the chance to physically follow their mannequin "patient" from pre-hospital to acute care, while up until now trainees have only been able to chart that process on a computer.
"The SimMan 3G will seriously expand our ability to upgrade skills and competencies throughout the tri-county area and beyond," said Whittaker.
Whittaker said the SimMan 3G also will be a valuable resource at the ambulance station for routine educational courses such as Emergency Medical Responder, Emergency Medical Technician, Advanced Emergency Medical Technician, Paramedic, ACLS, PALS, EVOC, Community CEU Classes, PEPP, 24-Hour EMS Refresher, Extrication/Rescue Training, Trauma Combat Casualty Care Course and Community Paramedicine.
The SimMan 3G will also be used during community outreach programs such as AHA Heartsaver AED/CPR/First Aid/Spanish CPR, the CPR Anytime Program and HCP CPR/CPR Instructor.
"This SimMan is a significantly more advanced computer than our other Sim people, so we will certainly benefit in-house as well."
For more information on the recent grant award to HGH EMS Rescue for purchase of a SimMan 3G, please call HGH EMS Rescue Education Coordinator Ken Whittaker at (775) 623-5222, ext. 262.
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