The SIU School of Medicine and Memorial Health partnered Thursday to train trauma doctors on how to triage patients following one or more mass casualty events.
The training tests the abilities of first- and second-year residents in the program with scenarios meant to seem so authentic they even burn clothing to create a real-world environment.
Victim-actors are themselves trained to offer real-time feedback to those providing the care.
“We are training emergency medicine residents to do exactly what they do every single day, which is to take care of anything and everything that walks through the door of the emergency department,” said Dr. Tyler Fulks of the SIU School of Medicine. “You have no warning what is going to come through with each and every patient, and so this just an extreme version of that.”
Audra Chestnut, System Director of Learning Innovation for Memorial Health, said the training happens at least once a year for residents in the emergency medicine division.
Those being trained don’t know ahead of time what the crisis or crises will be. Thursday’s drill involved two happening at the same time, including the mock-up of a train car derailment.