Students in Hudson Valley Community College’s health science programs took part in a day of simulated emergency scenarios on Wednesday. Participants got an opportunity to communicate and ask questions before they encounter life-or-death situations in the real world.
“Everybody fill out their evaluations…”
Health sciences students from a variety of disciplines filled HVCC’s Cardiorespiratory and Emergency Medicine Department for a day of events designed to test their medical know-how, communication and cooperation skills.
Inside a simulated emergency room, students debrief after a scenario involving an infant burn victim. A life-size dummy with gauze taped to its head and a tube in its mouth is lying on an exam table.
Srinidhi Tata was among nursing students taking part in the simulation.
“So were told there was a fire. So, we were taught like, ‘OK , this is a burn victim. What are the most important priorities for burn victims, such as airway, make sure the airway is patent.’ We want to cover the burns, start fluids and basically protect their vitals,” said Tata.
In this scenario, the baby did not survive. Cleopatra Coppola, a first-year mortuary science student, placed the infant, wrapped in a blanket, into a zippered bag.
“In class, we actually do live embalming. Here, it's more of how to prepare the body to take to the morgue or to the funeral home. So, this is new for me. But it's really interesting to actually be able to lift the body up and see what it's before we get to the embalming room,” said Coppola.
Lori Q. Purcell chairs the Mortuary Science Department at HVCC, and says participating in the scenarios is an accreditation requirement for seniors in the program.
“What happens is, each year we've done the simulation. So, the students in every department, but our mortuary students, they're actually, when this baby had deceased, they would now talk with a family to get information. And then the deceased would be taken either to the funeral home, maybe, depending where it would go,” said Purcell.
In the scenario involving the infant burn victim, volunteer Connie Hosler acted as the baby’s mother.
"I'm very impressed in how they treat you as a parent, like what they've said to me, how they've comforted me and that kind of thing. I'm really surprised because they're young and they're learning, but they're very good at what they're doing, I think,” said Hosler.
The simulations run the length of the day. During an afternoon break, a group debriefing is held in a large conference wrong. Nursing instructor Sarah Kownack leads the discussion.
“Y'all keep asking me, where's the mom, you should have asked EMS. Right? So, things like that have started to come up. So be mindful of those…”
Kownack says the simulations are meant to be treated by students as a professional hospital setting. She critiques the students’ use of language and ability to gather information.
“If there's room for opportunities, those are the safe places to make those errors because we really want them to learn, that needs to be the safe place. They need to be able to have that safe place to learn, have that safe place to ask questions so that they can see those – see one, do one, teach one type of thing – and then move on to the real clinical setting where they have real, live patients. And they've seen those scenarios before so they can connect those dots on, ‘Oh, I've seen this. This is how this should play out and this is how I should handle the situation,’” said Kownack.
More than 100 HVCC students participated, alongside staff and physicians from Albany Medical Center.
