Navy Medicine, Hartford Hospital Partnership Provides High-Tech Training For SUB IDCs

Courtesy Photo | Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathon D. Powell performs a simulated emergency airway management technique during training in Hartford, Connecticut. Powell is one of 11 submarine independent duty corpsmen students to complete a three-day enhanced simulation training program at Hartford Hospital. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Petty Officer Scott Eggert/Released  

HARTFORD, CT, UNITED STATES

11.10.2016

Story by Larry Coffey 

Naval Medical Forces Support Command

HARTFORD, Conn. – Eleven Submarine Independent Duty Corpsman (SUB IDC) students completed a three-day enhanced simulation training program at Hartford Hospital at Hartford, Connecticut, Nov. 10 as part of a Navy Medicine partnership program with the local hospital.
The simulation training is a local partnership between the Naval Undersea Medical Institute (NUMI) at Groton, Connecticut, and Hartford Hospital’s Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation (CESI), said Chief Petty Officer (FMF/SCW/SW) Scott Eggert, NUMI detachment simulation program manager.
“All IDC students attend this three-day training, which is at the end of the curriculum and brings together all the knowledge that was presented during the past 14 months,” Eggert said. “Our friends at Hartford Hospital CESI have surpassed all expectations when it comes to incorporating simulation.”
The contract with Hartford Hospital include lectures from board-certified physicians with topics ranging from airway and breathing to cardiology to trauma. The rest of the schedule incorporates team-building cases as a class, hands-on skills stations with task trainers, and individual cases with small groups.
“As small as it may seem, task trainers are a huge part of simulation by providing the ability to perform tasks that can’t otherwise be performed on a live model (human),” Eggert said. “Task trainer stations include laryngoscopy and intubation, cricoidthyroidotomy, advanced airway placements, nasogastric tube placement, parenteral medication delivery, CPR, chest tubes, ultrasound, suturing, and wound packing. Each one of these stations is led and taught by the CESI staff members, who may be an emergency room physician, a nurse educator, or even a respiratory therapist.”
Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Couch, a NUMI IDC student who attended the training, said one word to describe the program’s value is “perspective.” Having received training primarily in combat field trauma training, he said the program helped him shift perspective from the immediate care required in combat to managing care as an IDC on board submarines.
“Now that I am striving to be a provider-level medical practitioner, my thought process must expand to more of supportive care and team management,” Couch said. “This facility allowed me to put to practice the training I received, understand the diagnoses I make, and physically see the outcomes of my interventions. CESI brought the books to life.”
CESI accomplishes this simulation training with a wireless manikin that breathes and talks, provides heart, lung, and bowel sounds, and can bleed and sweat. Eggert said this allows students to interact with a “patient” on a level that is close to what they will encounter in the fleet.
“The student’s perspective changes completely when the use of simulation replaces the instructor in front of the student,” Eggert said. “The student is in a room with the simulator, and the instructor is in a control room behind one-way mirrored glass. From there the student interacts with a ‘patient’ and is able to get real-life sounds and reactions to interventions while being able to see vital signs changing. The reality level increases because of this simple intervention.”
Eggert said students are placed into a scenario that could or has happened on a submarine.
“From there the students use their critical-thinking skills to identify what is going on and treat the patient as appropriate while developing a long-term care plan in case the submarine can’t surface for a few days,” Eggert said.
Some cases incorporate what was learned earlier in the day while others require thinking outside the box. The training ends with a mass casualty drill to test critical thinking with multiple patients for all the students to treat.
“The rooms get filled with smoke,” Eggert described. “The staff tape off the stairways, narrowing them to the size of ladders on a sub. It’s awesome!”
Eggert said CESI staff are trained before working with IDC students. They learn submarine medicine basics and are required to tour a submarine prior to being placed behind the glass to train the students.
“The staff take it so seriously that even the president of Hartford Hospital came to NUMI and got a tour of a submarine,” Eggert said.
Stephen Donahue, the CESI program director, called working with the submarine IDCs an honor and privilege.
“Many of our practicing physicians frequently donate their time to assist with this program as a way for them to give back and support these folks for what they provide to us and to our country.”
Couch said the Hartford Hospital and NUMI partnership is a two-way street, benefitting the Navy and the hospital. For him, it is an absolute necessity, providing him the skills to save lives and do his part to help ensure the Navy maintains a fit and healthy force.
“For the hospital, I believe Navy Corpsman provide a different perspective in real-world events,” Couch said. “Many of us have been on-scene in combat trauma situations in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and can share our experiences. It may add a new perspective to the staff of the hospital and possibly bring their theories and books to life. For independent healthcare practitioners in a very remote location, we need this level of training to provide the best care for our patients.”

• Date Taken: 11.10.2016
• Date Posted: 11.14.2016 16:34
• Story ID: 214587
• Location: HARTFORD, CT, US