By Chris Kroboth
I can’t say it any better than cousin Eddie did in “National Lampoon‘s Vegas Vacation.” “Don’t go cheap on me.” That’s what your students want to ensure you do for them. Let’s be clear. I’m not talking about going cheap in terms of buying the most expensive manikin or having the biggest sim lab; quite the opposite. I’m talking about not going cheap by not setting reasonable, realistic, achievable objectives for your simulations – and ensuring that you meet and achieve them during the simulation.
I have the unique opportunity of getting to travel all over to help people set up and develop realistic and achievable simulations for their students, employees or clients. I’m usually invited to tour their facilities or look at their most fabulous and newest high-fidelity manikin or sim lab with all the bells and whistles. I am always willing, as it helps me get a pulse on what they value regarding simulation education.
I have found that the manikin industry has created a culture where simulation experts and instructors define the quality of their program and their ability to provide experiential learning based on the amount of mechanical, optical or audible features built into their manikin platform. I know we need manikins for the cases we can’t practice with live role players, but real humans are the highest fidelity and are the population we run.
But, back to Cousin Eddie‘s eloquent, enlightening statement, when we are talking about going cheap or cutting corners in EMS training, what we really mean is, are you giving that student the best opportunity to learn and experience based on the objectives you’ve set? This isn’t as hard as you think.
Roadside patient assessment
An example would be an interstate vehicle collision or a roadside patient assessment. Please don’t take the student in your open-air classroom with gray walls, seating throughout, and artificial ceiling lights, and ask their brain to conceptualize the fact that they are on the side of I-95 in the evening with cars whizzing by and have them try to assess a static manikin laying in the anatomic position on the floor.
Instead, take them to the same room, put a YouTube video on the TV of cars whizzing by on an interstate roadway and turn up the volume so that there is a degree of sensory load. Dim the lights, up-regulating the senses that are not being maximally stimulated, like vision. Have a role-player (I highly recommend students because they can now start to learn by being a patient what different assessments from different individuals look like, and they can use these opportunities to help tune up their patient assessments and care) who can engage in conversation and body language, highlighting areas of pain or problems.
Lift assist
Here’s another example. Let’s explore my good friend, Dr. Dorsett‘s favorite call – the lift assist.
As opposed to saying you’ve been dispatched to a lift assist in that same wide-open 100-level college classroom with stadium-style seating, grey walls and bright lights, position a patient on the floor of the bathroom at your facility (clean it first of course) and dispatch the student to the bathroom of a single-family residence. Take them down the hall to the bathroom in the building and have that patient mangled up around or adjacent to the toilet, just like on a real call. This scenario provides the slippery tile floor effect, the confined space next to the toilet effect, and the lack of mobility and ability due to structural and physical constraints.
If you want to enhance the scenario, go online and buy any of the cans of simulated fecal spray and give one little puff before the scenario starts so that you’ve taxed your student’s olfactory sense as well.
Engage the senses
Walt Disney had this figured out years ago with his Imagineers. If you can trigger three or more senses, you can enhance the brain’s opportunity to suspend disbelief and buy into the environment. If you think about Disney World or Disney Land (the rides, not the cost), the rides that you remember most are the ones in which a role player in character greeted you, and you walked through the maze of stage setting, with themed scenery and sounds playing in the background with the lights dimmed, to help your brain get into that moment, so when you get to the ride, your brain is more accepting of you being on space mountain or the haunted mansion or the tower of terror.
I challenge you: next time you set up a simulation, trigger three senses. Play a relevant video, dim the lights slightly, up-regulate the learner’s other senses and implement live-role players to increase the realism of the simulation, readying your students to respond when we’re called to help.
| More: Book excerpt: ‘Friday Night Lights.’ Earn CEUs with this compilation of calls from real EMS cases written by Chris Kroboth.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chris Kroboth has been a career paramedic/firefighter for over 19 years and in EMS for over 25. He has been in prehospital and hospital education for the past 18 years. His last assignment before returning to operations was as the EMS training captain in charge of continuing education programs and certification. He is the owner of Lifeline EMS Training and Consulting LLC.