Radios crackled to life and the news was grim: a packed car had hit two cyclists and seven patients needed urgent medical assistance for serious injuries.
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Luckily it was a training call for student paramedics at Federation University but their actions that followed were identical to those they would take if they responded to a similar call in real life.
On arrival at the scene the paramedics were confronted with all the sights and sounds they would at a real crash – screaming patients, blood, sirens and bystanders milling around.
The first responders assessed patients then took on a logistics role coordinating other crews tending to individual patients, in addition to other services including rescue crews needed to help free the patients trapped in the car.
Paramedicine lecturer Nareeda Miller said hands-on training was one of the best ways to put skills and knowledge in to practice.
Federation University runs the only nurse to paramedics conversion course in Victoria, one of only two in Australia, and all 40 students involved in Friday’s mock accident training are registered division one nurses completing the year-long post-graduate course to make a career-change in to the ambulance service.
“These students have just finished a two-week intensive block predominantly on trauma management so this is about finishing that off with them managing a multiple casualty exercise,” Ms Miller said.
“It allows them to put in to practice the skills and knowledge learned over the past two weeks to run a large scale scene, which is done quite a bit differently than if you are managing a single patient.”
A drama student and volunteers played the real life victims, screaming out in pain and pleading for help, complete with makeup, protruding bones, open wounds and spinal injuries.
Paramedics also dealt with practicalities including difficult access, trapped patients, and to consider what other injuries a patient could have on the basis of the mechanics of the car accident.
After the mock accident and with patients treated and removed from the car, the student paramedics debriefed with their lecturers and onlookers who monitored the scene.
“A big logistical scene doesn’t have to be a building collapse, it can be something as simple as a car accident which becomes complex when you’re dealing with five, six or seven patients.”
