We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Jessica Aberg and Jenni Pula, kneeling left to right, practice using a Lucas 2 automated chest compressor for assisted CPR.
Valerie Beck works to insert a King Airway during a Mega Code training session as Jessica Aberg looks on. The training was for Blaine County ambulance crews and other local medical providers. Beck is a Clinical Nurse at the Sweet Medical Center and Aberg is an EMT on the Blaine I ambulance crew in Chinook.
Each year members of local ambulance crews review and practice their Mega Code skills. A Mega Code training session is designed to assure crew members can successfully aid and transport a heart attack victim. Recently Blaine County ambulance crews, along with invited medical providers from other local health care facilities, completed a five-hour review using a series of simulated situations to practice and hone their skills. About 30 people participated in the training.
Dan Friede, Co-crew Chief for Blaine I (Chinook) ambulance, organized the training. Other ambulance crews included EMT's with Blaine II (Turner/Hogeland area), Blaine III (Harlem) and volunteers with the Fort Belknap crew. There were also other medical providers including nurses from both Sweet Medical Center (SMC) and Sweet Memorial Nursing Home (SNH). Nurses from Indian Health Services and volunteer ambulance crew members from Fort Belknap also participated. Friede said, "We encourage other providers to participate in the Mega Code training so they know what our ambulance crews will be doing once they arrive on the scene."
Jenni Pula, Administrator at SNH and also a nurse, said, "Dan has invited our nursing staff to the training in the past but this was the first time some of us could make the training. The training was a fantastic bridge for us, to learn what the ambulance crews will do once they arrive and what we can do to prepare for their arrival. It was well worth the time and effort to train together."
Five 'stations' were completed by each team of crew members and participating medical providers. Simulations at the stations included: putting IV's into patients (using a rubberized practice arm); using Mega Code protocols (cardio pulmonary resuscitation of a heart attack victim using a sophisticated Laerdal Advanced Life Support simulator dummy) and practicing with both the Lucas 2 cardiac compression machine (a device that does chest compressions on a heart attack victim) and the King airway device (to protect and secure the airway of a victim).
Crews also worked with the Lifepack 15, a 12-lead heart monitor that attaches to a suspected heart attack victim uses different 'views' of the heart to determine if a heart attack is in progress or has happened. Through telemetry on board the ambulance, information about the victim is transmitted to Northern Montana Hospital which is a facility equipped to receive critical heart attack victims. The information from the Lifepack 15 assessment allows medical staff at the hospital to be prepared to receive the victim and, if necessary, alert Mercy Flight. Hospital medical staffs can send suggested protocols to ambulance crews in transit. Heart attack victims with certain types of detected heart attacks are flown to the 'cath lab' in Great Falls where emergency measures, including surgery, can be taken to help the heart properly provide blood flow.
An important advantage of the Lifepack monitor is to diagnose an ST-elevated myocardial infarction, or STEMI, in which blood is completely blocked to a portion of the heart. A STEMI is the most critical type of heart attack. The $25,000 monitors, purchased with grants to Montna through the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, provide an improved system of care for heart attack patients throughout rural Montana. Each year about 1800 Montanans are hospitalized from heart attacks.
The thirty people at the training were divided into five teams. After working through each station the team's performance was critiqued. Friede said, "This is why we do the simulations on a regular basis. In a stressful situation, like treating a heart attack victim, we have to automatically respond. Hands-on training helps us internalize the procedures and protocols." Team members have to constantly shift their tactics as 'what ifs' are introduced by instructors at the various stations.
New technologies provide some creative and very realistic ways for providers to practice their treatment skills. But what really seems to motivate them to learn is their passion to help others. The "Journal" salutes and thanks these caregivers for the time they devote to providing emergency care in our county.
