The National Resilience team recently hosted a joint agency scenario training event working alongside critical care paramedic students on their Master’s program from Plymouth University.

Alex Cross an emergency medicine consultant at the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital and a critical care doctor for Devon Air Ambulance explained: “These students are attending the Masters Pre-Hospital Critical Care/Retrieval and Transfer pathway at Plymouth University. They air ambulance crews from Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Bristol and Somerset all training together. They are mostly specialist critical care paramedics with one doctor as well.

“This training event is a consolidation of all the theory that they have been learning throughout the year. It is a huge benefit for them to be able to train together, plus it puts the practical element into all their lectures.

“These scenarios allow them to think about the other skills they need rather than only theory. Things like the crew resource management, working alongside part trained crews as well as untrained bystanders.

“We receive great feedback from these days as the students find them highly valuable, as they learn so much while being able to train in a safe but realistic environment, alongside the professionalism of theNational Resilience team.

The scenarios

A pregnant woman who had taken a drug overdose and them went into cardiac arrest, so the teams had to deliver the baby in an emergency fashion, which had to be within four mins, as well as saving the mother. Other scenarios were a child with a head injury after diving into a small pool; a man with severe burns; a man stuck in a car after a road traffic collision and the only way he could be removed was to amputate his leg.

Alex added: “The kind of scenarios that have been set up are rare medical emergencies that students would only possibility come across once in their career. Without this resource to simulate them there is no way we could train and practice in such a realistic way. We are incredibility grateful to the National Resilience team to be able to train in this environment.”

Dave Norris Crew Manager Alpha Watch, National Resilience explained: “We have been carrying out collaborate work with Alex and her team for a couple of years now. The National Resilience team set up the scenarios for the paramedics. The training event provides the ideal opportunity for our crews to interact with the medical team on a level we wouldn’t normally deal with. The feedback has been very positive from everyone involved and it’s a huge benefit for the crews to see how each of the different medical teams work within the training scenario as well as being able to develop an understanding of the medical terminology used.”