Photo By Gino Mattorano | Medical trainers from Evans Army Community Hospital’s Department of Education...... read more read more
Evans Army Community Hospital’s Department of Education has a new tool to help ensure Fort Carson medical personnel are deployment ready.
The DoE recently acquired two new high-fidelity mannequins that will offer Soldiers more realistic training and provide feedback that is more similar to an actual human response, according to Staff Sgt. Jackie Soffrand-Avila, an Army Medic and instructor for the EACH Department of Education.
The hospital’s Education Department provides medical training for new medical personnel, as well as periodic and refresher training for medical providers. The DoE also fosters partnerships in support of medical education across EACH and Fort Carson Operational Forces to ensure a deployment-ready medical force.
The new mannequins will help provide a more realistic training environment for Soldiers and civilian providers who undergo training at the DoE.
According to Soffrand-Avila, the new mannequins have proper anatomy, can breathe on their own, have a heartbeat, a functional circulatory system and even a bladder.
“With previous generations of mannequins, students have to rely on feedback from the instructor to know if their interventions are working,” said Soffrand-Avila. “With the high-fidelity mannequins, you have to actually be intentional, the same way that you would with a person. It forces the student to do things the same way they would in a real-world situation.”
This realism enables instructors to better train students on the types of injuries they might see in the field
“For example, if the scenario involves a patient with a collapsed lung, they can perform a needle decompression and actually see the effect of their intervention when the lung starts working again,” Soffrand-Avila said.
Based on the training scenario, the instructor can make the mannequin simulate a variety of medical emergencies from a tablet that is remotely connected to the mannequin.
“These mannequins even have veins and a heartbeat,” Soffrand-Avila said. “If a student is trying to place an IV, they know right away if they have placed it correctly because the mannequins actually have simulated blood flowing through their veins.”
Many of the students who come through the training are junior Soldiers who are still learning the basics of tactical combat casualty care, so training provided by the DoE gives them the confidence to perform their wartime mission.
“It really puts them in the mindset that they actually have to deal with the patient directly, rather than looking to someone else for feedback,” Soffrand-Avila said. “We let them work through it and actually see how much time it takes to place an IV or to how effective chest compressions are on a patient. We want them to practice here and make mistakes here so that when they have to do this on a battlefield, they are confident in their skills.”
In addition to junior Soldiers, the DoE conducts a variety of classes for Soldiers who need a refresher course, or for other providers who need to stay current on Individual Critical Task List (ICTL) skills.
“Having realistic training is extremely important for all of our students,” said Maj. Erika Lay, an Army Nurse and Chief, Department of Education. “The high-fidelity mannequins enable us to offer more realistic training and better prepare our students for providing care on the battlefield or in the hospital setting.”
| Date Taken: | 12.18.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 12.19.2025 18:35 |
| Story ID: | 555028 |
| Location: | FORT CARSON, COLORADO, US |
| Web Views: | 28 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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