Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
February 18, 2009
Pg. B3
Medical personnel headed overseas, plus students here, learn to face emergencies, make decisions and take action.
By Blythe Bernhard, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
When brain matter spilled from the mannequin's head, doctors knew he was gone and moved to the next patient.
Doctors, nurses and medics demonstrated their skills Tuesday at a simulated military hospital now housed at the St. Louis University School of Medicine.
The school teamed up with the Air Force's Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills to build the new trauma lab, which opened last week to replace a smaller facility established six years ago.
Before they are deployed to war zones overseas, Air Force health care staff take a two-week training course at the center, including a rotation in the emergency department at St. Louis University Hospital.
In the simulation lab, life-like mannequins play the roles of injured officers and civilians to help prepare military doctors for the battlefield.
On Tuesday, the practice scenario included two adults and one child facing life-threatening injuries. Trainees had to decide which patient should be airlifted to a hospital, and which they couldn't save.
"If our medical students and our Air Force people can handle this, they can handle 98 percent of what they see in the real world," said Dr. Philip Alderson, the school's dean.
The Simulation and Clinical Skills Center opened at SLU six years ago with one mannequin. Now home to eight mannequins, the recent expansion also includes an emergency room, an operating room and a control room where instructors can watch through one-way glass.
The Air Force also helps operate two similar centers in Baltimore and Cincinnati. Air Force officials estimated the cost of the new lab at more than $3 million, including $250,000 for each mannequin.
The mannequins breathe, bleed and talk under the control of instructors.
Simulating injuries seen in war zones helps desensitize doctors and nurses so they can stay calm, said Lt. Col. Dan Bruzzini.
"If you screw up here, you learn. You're not going to make that mistake later," said Bruzzini, a doctor who directs pediatric medicine at the lab.
Medical students will share the SLU facility. Military equipment can be swapped out for hospital equipment, to familiarize students with the machines they'll use in the field. After the practice sessions, trainees watch themselves on videos and critique their performances with instructors.
In the simulation, Dr. Emilia Ortiz helped stabilize a 6-year-old mannequin boy with internal bleeding.
"They're things I haven't seen before or treated before," said Ortiz, a resident in family practice at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Belleville who is on active duty in the Air Force.
The simulations are crucial because civilian hospitals can't fully prepare you for military situations, said Stephanie Buffett, an Air Force nurse who spent six months as a trauma coordinator in Afghanistan.
"They're going to have limited resources, limited personnel," she said. "You don't get a second shot when you're in the theater."
February 18, 2009
Pg. B3
Medical personnel headed overseas, plus students here, learn to face emergencies, make decisions and take action.
By Blythe Bernhard, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
When brain matter spilled from the mannequin's head, doctors knew he was gone and moved to the next patient.
Doctors, nurses and medics demonstrated their skills Tuesday at a simulated military hospital now housed at the St. Louis University School of Medicine.
The school teamed up with the Air Force's Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills to build the new trauma lab, which opened last week to replace a smaller facility established six years ago.
Before they are deployed to war zones overseas, Air Force health care staff take a two-week training course at the center, including a rotation in the emergency department at St. Louis University Hospital.
In the simulation lab, life-like mannequins play the roles of injured officers and civilians to help prepare military doctors for the battlefield.
On Tuesday, the practice scenario included two adults and one child facing life-threatening injuries. Trainees had to decide which patient should be airlifted to a hospital, and which they couldn't save.
"If our medical students and our Air Force people can handle this, they can handle 98 percent of what they see in the real world," said Dr. Philip Alderson, the school's dean.
The Simulation and Clinical Skills Center opened at SLU six years ago with one mannequin. Now home to eight mannequins, the recent expansion also includes an emergency room, an operating room and a control room where instructors can watch through one-way glass.
The Air Force also helps operate two similar centers in Baltimore and Cincinnati. Air Force officials estimated the cost of the new lab at more than $3 million, including $250,000 for each mannequin.
The mannequins breathe, bleed and talk under the control of instructors.
Simulating injuries seen in war zones helps desensitize doctors and nurses so they can stay calm, said Lt. Col. Dan Bruzzini.
"If you screw up here, you learn. You're not going to make that mistake later," said Bruzzini, a doctor who directs pediatric medicine at the lab.
Medical students will share the SLU facility. Military equipment can be swapped out for hospital equipment, to familiarize students with the machines they'll use in the field. After the practice sessions, trainees watch themselves on videos and critique their performances with instructors.
In the simulation, Dr. Emilia Ortiz helped stabilize a 6-year-old mannequin boy with internal bleeding.
"They're things I haven't seen before or treated before," said Ortiz, a resident in family practice at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Belleville who is on active duty in the Air Force.
The simulations are crucial because civilian hospitals can't fully prepare you for military situations, said Stephanie Buffett, an Air Force nurse who spent six months as a trauma coordinator in Afghanistan.
"They're going to have limited resources, limited personnel," she said. "You don't get a second shot when you're in the theater."