By Lexi Woodcock
Quad City Times
MUSCATINE, Iowa — This week, the Muscatine Fire Department firefighters took part in hands-on emergency medical services training through a statewide program out of University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
For the last three days, the department and personnel operated out of two “fully equipped simulation rooms”, the release said, one modeled after an ambulance and another after an ER bay through the Simulation in Motion—Iowa program, or SIM-IA.
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According to their website, the program provides high, mid and low-fidelity simulation experiences to healthcare providers across Iowa, at no cost to EMS agencies that request it. SIM-IA’s mobile approach allows EMS teams to train in their own community to reduce travel and education costs, according to the website.
“This is the second time Muscatine Fire has used this training opportunity,” Battalion Chief Andrew McSorley, who also serves as the department’s EMS Operations Chief, said. “It’s extremely solid training for both our veteran staff and our newest team members.”
Muscatine fire officials said the squad first utilized SIM-IA’s mobile training program in December 2020 , and then crews worked through two high-intensity scenarios that involved an individual who had fallen 18 feet from a tree stand and suffered a severe impalement injury to the leg and the other focused on a critically ill juvenile patient in need of urgent care.
Fire officials said during the training, one session involved a woman in active labor, while another focused on a dehydrated juvenile patient. Firefighters worked in teams of two while “instructors interacted as the ‘voice’ of the victim.”
“We ran the entire department through scenarios that focus on skills you may not get to use very often,” McSorley said. “It’s a chance to practice high-risk, low-frequency situations in a controlled environment.”
At the end of each scenario, officials said instructors conducted a debrief, reviewing what went well and what could be improved, applying sessions to real-world patient care with Muscatine firefighters.
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