This week at Lipscomb, an Air Evac helicopter landed and students lay strewn across campus with gruesome-looking injuries.
Despite the emergency scene, students were all smiles; they were getting first-hand simulated medical experience at this year’s Lipscomb-HCA/TriStar Health Care Academy. The academy drew 26 high-schoolers from across Tennessee — and even one from Honduras.
The academy’s activities on Tuesday included first-aid training and even a live simulation, featuring Journalism Campers as “victims.”
“I think this is a wonderful experience for high-schoolers to come and dabble in health care if that’s going to be their profession later in life,” said Sarah Neller, assistant professor of nursing.
In the training, there were different stations set up for different types of medical treatment, and the students rotated from station to station. The training involved bandaging, cold liquid appliances and the removal of possible infectious materials such as dirt or grass in the wound.
While this was going on, teachers were prepping the “victims” outside the Burton Health Sciences Center.
Tamara Baird, an IT Nurse, was in charge of creating the victim’s “injuries.” Baird used tools such as Vaseline, costume blood, make-up and hydrogen peroxide.
“I create accidents to make them look realistic for the medical trainees,” Baird said.
Then, the students were given first-aid kits and instructed to go outside and examine their patients’ condition and properly treat them. Each victim was given a specific injury and role to play during the simulation; injuries ranged from minor sprains to serious lacerations and heat stroke.
Baird said that the benefits extend beyond textbook knowledge.
“If you get used to the wounds in this environment, you won’t flip out in real life,” Baird added.
Health Care Academy student Amaka Mgboh said that the simulation was fun and at the same time “eye-opening.”
“Sometimes you have to put down your own problems and care for others,” Mgboh said. “You have to try to be there for them and not be self centered.”
Mgboh said she now wants to pursue a career in nursing.
An on-site EMT, James Boyd, observed the entire simulation before addressing the students about his career. He said the wounds looked very similar to what he sees in real life.
“I wish they did something like this when I was going through school — before I went to EMT school,” Boyd said. ”I think it would have helped me a lot.”
Students also experienced hands-on training when the Air Evac helicopter landed on the quad on Tuesday.
Due to an emergency situation, the helicopter arrived a bit later than scheduled. Its appearance drew several curious Lipscomb faculty and staff members from their offices.
After the helicopter landed, campers approached it to meet the flight crew. Flight nurse Mark Taylor was eager to explain the best and worst parts of his job.
“You get to see people on their worst day,” Taylor said, “and try to make a positive impact.”
Taylor said that in medical emergencies, a helicopter can have the tools, and specially trained individuals can make those traumatic days have a positive outcome.
“There’s a variety of tools,” Taylor said. “We all go through extensive training, so we can assert a level of care.”
The extensive training, along with the access of equipment, prepares the flight crew for all possible emergency situations that they may encounter on the job.
Taylor addressed the issues that heart attacks and strokes can bring and how a helicopter can be best suited to address the situation. Victims of these medical emergencies are treated with a variety of implements that can keep them alive while on the short helicopter ride to the hospital.
“We do a lot of ventilator management,” said Taylor. “It has a tube breathing for them.”
Taylor explained how a helicopter could be used as a quick call to action. He even compared the effectiveness of the helicopter to that of an ambulance.
“The problem is time,” Taylor said. “That’s why we exist, to get time-sensitive issues relieved quickly.”
Reporting by J-Campers Collin Andrews, Katy Beth Boyers, Ben Castles, Alyssa Cuevas, Peyton Couch, Jason DeBord, Ellie Gramling, Taylor Mayberry and Trenity Scott
Photos by Lauren Borders, DeBord and Gramling