By Matthew Baughman
The Leader-Telegram
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — An 18-month-old having to be rushed to the hospital for a high fever and potential seizure is certainly a realistic scenario that any first responder may have to go through. But luckily for the Eau Claire Fire and Rescue, this situation earlier in the summer was only a simulation so their team can prepare for the real thing.
The training session utilized lab space and mannequins from Chippewa Valley Technical College, as Theresa Meinen, CVTC simulation education coordinator and instructor, said this has been part of a partnership that has been going on for many years.
“They like to work with us in the off-season to train their crew in the same way their students get trained,” she said. “It is kind of nice; we do it every summer and we have done it for as long as I can remember.”
Meinen said their goal with the simulations is to keep them as realistic as possible. Another important aspect of the simulation is that members of the Fire and Rescue team only know that they will be receiving a mock call, but have no idea what the situation is until they are called to the scene.
In years prior, this annual practice has simulated burns, farming accidents and anything where the local organizations say they may need training for.
“Typically, what we do is we get together sometime in the late fall or early spring, and we talk about maybe a new protocol, something that has changed or what do they need to train on this year. Is there a new device? … Has there been a call that they went on that maybe they would have liked to have gone better?” she said. “We really sit down and work through how can the simulation center meet those needs and give them a good experience that all of their staff can train on.”
This year’s simulation with the child involved Eau Claire Fire and Rescue responding to a high fever, which Meinen said is not a scenario that is necessarily new to these first responders. But adding on the factors of a critically ill patient with an infectious process and a worried and upset mother who cares for their child, training to manage and respond to all of these areas is crucial training
The simulation trains the workers to operate in this high-stress and high-risk environment, without the chance of one wrong decision being fatal.
“The way these simulations work is that we want it to be as realistic as possible, but in a controlled environment,” Meinen said. “We are able to replicate these situations that happen out in the real world by making our spaces very realistic.”
But looking towards the future, Meinen said this partnership and these training opportunities with local first responders is something they plan on continuing.
“While we are doing this scenario, in our break time and lunchtime we are already talking about ‘what are you guys thinking for next year?’ … so that I can start to brainstorm a little bit what this would look like, what spaces we have that would work best, which mannequins would fit the bill, the timing of it, et cetera,” she said.
Continuing, Meinen said, “I love to be able to train the community, and it is part of CVTC’s mission that we deliver innovative education in order to add value to our communities. This is a perfect way that we do that.”
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