Ambulance simulators at NICC offer invaluable training for students in EMS program

The trained Emergency Medical Services (EMS) professionals who rush to a patient’s side in an emergency - at a private residence, a roadside or a place of business - may not know with 100% certainty the circumstances in a medical crisis until they arrive at the scene. For this reason, health care educators at Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) are turning to advanced simulation technology to recreate EMS scenarios to supplement every student’s training and career preparation.
Starting this fall, new ambulance simulators at the college’s Peosta and Calmar campuses are offering invaluable training experiences for students enrolled in EMS programming, according to Sam Janecke, EMS program director at NICC. “At NICC, we have always utilized a “simulated” patient, such as a manikin or a fellow student, to provide training experiences for students that prepare them for emergency situations. With the new ambulance simulators, our students are equipped with a piece of the puzzle that had been missing,” Janecke said. “Students will learn safe cot handling, loading into the ambulance, comforting a patient who is undergoing trauma, and providing a second or third set of vitals to report trending conditions while en route to the hospital or emergency care setting.”
Janecke said much of the training surrounding ambulance transport and procedures was previously limited to verbal communication, and the simulators add a more realistic element to their EMS career or healthcare field preparation.
The new simulators contain functional emergency lights, simulated oxygen apparatus supplied by an air compressor unit and suction capability for emergency treatment care training. In training scenarios this semester at the Peosta campus, students will alternate role-playing in teams of dispatch/receiving and in ambulance transport using two-way radios with ambulance simulators, Janecke added.
“The new thing in healthcare is simulation because students learn by doing - it’s the most hands-on. Additionally, the simulators at both campuses have built-in digital recorders that will record everything in video and audio, which allows instructors to create a DVR and then debrief groups of three to four students. We can recap their training exercises and discuss things they did well or could improve upon,” he said.
The ambulance simulators at both campuses were purchased and installed at a cost of approximately $80,000. The Bridges2Healthcare grant program at NICC, which was funded from a $12.7 million federal job training and workforce development grant through the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career Training initiative, provided funding for the new simulators and their installation.
Classroom learning at NICC is essential to providing effective, high-quality healthcare training for students, yet it is experiential learning - the use of simulation - that offers students invaluable hands-on lessons and develops solid clinical and critical thinking skills. For more information on healthcare programs at NICC, visit www.nicc.edu/healthsciences.