SIM-NE Visits Health Center
By: Boone County Health Center
Boone County Health Center (BCHC) providers and nurses worked with the University of Nebraska Medical Center Simulation in Motion Nebraska program (SIM-NE) on March 21st to run emergency medical training at the hospital.
“I was amazed at the exceptional amount of teamwork the Health Center staff demonstrated,” said SIM-NE Trainer Shane Weidner. “They really worked well together.”
This free training was done in a 44-foot-long, customized truck that offers mobile, real-life training. The front half of the truck is a simulated emergency room (ER) and the back an ambulance.
“It’s nice for hospital staff to see the close quarters and noise emergency medical personnel deal with in an ambulance,” said Weidner.
There are a total of four customized trucks in Nebraska. They are stationed in Scottsbluff, Norfolk, Kearney and Lincoln and funded by a $5.5 million grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
Each truck is outfitted with high-tech computerized mannequins that talk, breath, have heartbeats and can react to medications and other actions of the learners. The trucks supply a realistic setting for learners with pre-programmed computerized medical and trauma scenarios; monitors to show the surprisingly life-like mannequin’s vital signs; and the ability to record and play back audio and video.
The truck that came to Albion is stationed out of Norfolk. Weidner said it goes out about two or three times a week as requested by hospitals, fire departments and emergency medical services (EMS).
Rural EMS agencies and critical access hospitals can ask for training at www.unmc.edu/SIM-NE. For more information, email sim-ne@unmc.edu or call 402 559-4863.