Community and Technical College Simulator Provides Life-like Training in West Virginia
June 03--Cell service, emergency radio service and even roads don't always make it into the most remote hollows around southern West Virginia, but medical emergencies happen everywhere.
At New River Community and Technical College, a life-like "METIman" is "training" paramedics -- the "first responders" to any remote medical emergency -- to help deliver first-class medical response to West Virginians.
METIman may look like a "dummy." But as he lay, "unconscious," in the "bedroom" of a double-wide trailer set up inside the NRCTC Advanced Technology Center at Ghent Monday, he was making students in the paramedic education program nervous.
"Students react with total fear," said Rich Bernhardt, director of the NRCTC EMS/Paramedics program. "This is the next best thing to having a real life patient."
It's not just that METIman is a human patient simulator that presents physiological responses: Programmed via computer by instructors in a separate room, METIman's eyes open and close, his irises "dilate," his "stomach" gurgles, his "lungs" make noises, his "heart" beats and he "cries."
Students must diagnose METIman's condition and offer the appropriate first-response medical treatment, Bernhardt said.
"It records the medication they give, and it records the mannequin's 'reaction' to the medications they gave," he reported. "This is the closest to a real patient there is."
Zach Chancey, 24, a second-year paramedic student, said METIman is a great learning tool.
"There's always a bit of anxiety when you have patient encounters," he said. "This takes away the fear of causing harm to the patient while you're still learning."
Emergency medical services (EMS) technicians enrolled in the paramedic program agreed that METIman has revolutionized their training.
With lifeless mannequins, said Bryan Matthes, students must get directions from the instructor, then face the mannequin and must turn away from the mannequin throughout the session in order to take cues from the instructor.
With METIman, they focus on the "patient."
"We can practice on these mannequins that don't do anything all day long, but until we see it, we're not going to know," remarked student Daniel Kronz of Fayette County.
Student Jonathan Ash said he's pursuing paramedic training in order to provide better medical care to those he transports.
"You just want to be able to do more for your patients," he said.
Dr. Jim Kyle, NRCTC medical director of the paramedic education program, commended the paramedic students -- including Timothy Robinson, an EMS with 25 years of experience -- because most are full-time workers who are now going to school full-time.
He said the METIman training will offer them a better educational opportunity and increase the quality of health care for all local residents.
Kyle said problems medical personnel encounter can occur once a day, once a week, once a month, once a year or once a career.
"We start out training with 'once-a-day things' but want to challenge them by recreating things they'll see once a year or once a career," said Kyle. "Because those are the things that'll save a life."
Barbara Kyle of the Kyle Group noted that paramedics are responsible for getting into hard-to-reach hollows in all weather, sometimes with no cell or radio connection and that they must stabilize patients and provide medical care until the patient reaches the hospital.
"They have to get the patient to the closest place to save their lives," she noted.
Paula Johnson, NRCTC instructional specialist of EMS, said METIman is ideal for teachers, too.
"The instructors are ... able to truly evaluate the skill level and get a full picture of the student's ability to appropriately engage and treat the patient," said Johnson.
The $107,000 mannequin was purchased with federal grant money and also has blood pressure and can "talk," using phrases which are programmed by instructors, Bernardt reported.
"I know some women who may want to date him," joked Barbara Elliott, NRCTC public relations director.
-- E-mail: jfarrish@register-herald.com
Copyright 2014 - The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va.
