USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS) faculty and staff took their expertise – and their technology – to Pinellas County to give emergency medical service instructors hands-on practice they could then take back to first-responders across the county.

The “train the trainer” exercise was offered by the USF Health CAMLS, to Pinellas County EMS instructors for three days as a part of a new community outreach program. EMS instructors from across Pinellas gathered for an all-day instructor development class led by Yasuharu “Haru” Okuda, MD, FACEP, FSSH, USF Health CAMLS executive director and USF Health executive director for interprofessional education and practice, and Ryan McKenna, DO, fellowship director, the interprofessional simulation fellowship at USF Health CAMLS and director of simulation, Emergency Medicine. The course focused on how to properly use and troubleshoot the technology and the best practices for simulation-based education.

Dr. Haru Okuda, MD, FACEP, FSSH, USF Health CAMLS executive director and USF Health executive director for interprofessional education and practice, taught the EMS instructors how to program and use the computerized mannequins to simulate various medical emergencies when teaching classes of their own.

“Simulation-based education is well-known to be very valuable in emergency medical services and emergency medical care in general, and we are excited to have the expertise of the USF Health CAMLS staff here to help us do a train-the-trainer,” said Angus Jameson, MD, MPH, USF Health affiliate associate professor of emergency medicine and medical director for Pinellas County EMS.

The EMS instructors gathered into two groups and ran through various scenarios with their mid-fidelity Gaumard ^®manikins. Hidden behind the television monitor used to display vital signs, Dr. Okuda and Dr. McKenna began the first round for their teams by acting as the patient, or the voice of the manikin. After a debrief, the instructors got a chance to play the roles of patient, family, and learners, while some served as facilitators who ran the simulation software.

During debrief, Ryan McKenna, DO, fellowship director, the interprofessional simulation fellowship at USF Health CAMLS and director of simulation, Emergency Medicine, goes over best-practices with the participating EMS instructors.

Shawn Tatham, EMS training coordinator for Pinellas County said, “in simulations, we can slow things down a little bit, we can get them into a structured assessment pattern and ensure that they’re doing their treatments according to our standardized protocol, and we can create a nice learning environment so they can go out and apply that for the best patient care.”

At the end of the scenario-based training, the EMS instructors will take what they have learned and apply it to their continuing education training with emergency medical technicians and paramedics across the county.

Andre Nelson, certified healthcare simulation operations specialist at USF Health CAMLS, helps EMS instructors with the behind-the-scenes technology that controls the manikin.

Video by Torie Doll and photos by Allison Long