ECC Instructors Train Franklin County EMS
Edgecombe Community College instructors who led the high fidelity simulation training for Franklin County EMS personnel included (from left) Jonathan Croom, Troy McNair, Lawrence Mathis, and Robert Whistler. The team will return in April to lead additional EMS training.
Franklin County is benefitting from the advanced simulation technology at Edgecombe Community College through EMS training using patient simulators.
Edgecombe Community College and Vance-Granville Community College partnered to offer the first EMS Quality Improvement Program (EQUIP) training for Franklin County EMS personnel.
Central to the training was ECC’s HealthCare Simulator, which is essentially a medical classroom on wheels. The five-year-old mobile medical simulation lab contains a high tech human manikin that can simulate more than 2,500 cardiac rhythm variations, pulses, blood pressure changes, pupil dilation, and pain, among other physiological responses. A baby simulator also is aboard the HealthCare Simulator.
About 80 students completed the specialized training that took place over four Wednesdays, four to six hours each day. The EQUIP instructors were ECC personnel Jonathan Croom, Lawrence Mathis, Kevin Newsome, Troy McNair, and Robert Whistler.
According to Whistler, coordinator of Emergency Services and Public Safety Training at Edgecombe Community College, “Working with patient simulators enabled the students to practice emergency calls that are not frequently seen but have high impact on the quality of life.
“Video recording of the scenarios allowed them to review their performance and debrief themselves and one another. Our instructors also were able to bring the students up to speed on current best practices,” he says.
Franklin County EMS management benefitted from the specialized training as well. As Whistler explains, “This training provided a global view of how their system functions given certain medical emergencies as well as insight into the effectiveness of their protocols, policies, and procedures.
“EMS management also learned where they need to focus future educational and training efforts,” he said.
The Edgecombe Community College team will return to Franklin County EMS in April to begin the first of an additional 22 training sessions that will be held throughout the year.