She had fallen on a garden implement, lacerating her superficial femoral artery. She used her cell phone to call 911. Thanks to an alert EMS crew and the Stop the Bleed training they recently received, a tourniquet was placed without delay. She got to our trauma bay in about 15 minutes after the tourniquet was applied. Although the patient made it abundantly clear that she was in pain, she was stable with moderate tachycardia and a good blood pressure.
Dr. Tyler G. Hughes
Our trauma team leaped into action. The leader took report from the EMS while two nurses and a second surgeon assessed the patient, got her clothes cut off, and applied monitors. A third nurse got a second IV going. Primary survey was done in less than 90 seconds. The patient then underwent a focused exam including a log roll for back injuries.
The leg wound was still oozing a bit, so a second tourniquet was called for and pressure applied until it could be acquired. The patient was given 5 mg of morphine sulfate, which calmed her down a bit. Labs and x-rays were done quickly. The nursing staff suggested a tetanus booster, and the second surgeon who had gotten a basic past medical history suggested vancomycin since the patient said she was allergic to penicillin. Fifteen minutes after she hit the trauma bay, she was on her way to the OR for exploration, debridement, and vascular repair of her injury.
This was all done by four M2 medical students and five N4 nursing students, none of whom had had previous experience with this type of trauma patient
The students were managing this trauma situation in the simulation center of their medical school with four staff watching. This was their second run through for the afternoon. At debriefing, they compared their work on the first trauma of the day (a stab wound to the right chest) to their second attempt. They were satisfied with their efforts and so were we, the faculty who ran the simulation. Comparing their response to those I’ve seen in real life, I’d say these students understood their roles and responsibilities as well as the sort of thrown-together teams I’ve seen at places where trauma is not the main focus. While these young men and women are in the early stage of training and not ready for a real-world trauma emergency, they have gained knowledge about this kind of situation that I didn’t see until I was in residency and beyond. The times they are a-changing.
A couple of days later I was in Rochester, Minn., attending an American College of Surgeons Advanced Education Institute (ACS/AEI) course on simulations. At the end of that course, we participants were challenged by a manikin in extremis. Everyone there was an expert, had an advanced degree, had some experience in simulation, or were surgeons interested in simulation. I found that, even though this was a simulation and the patient was only a pretend human being, my adrenal cortex performed almost as if I were doing a real resuscitation. Previous training I’d had on teamwork, crew resource management, and ACLS all kicked in, and we got it done. But interestingly, we weren’t perfect. We debriefed and found that, even at our level of experience and training, a simple simulation could be very instructive. Seeing/doing is believing.
High-tech skills in high-risk occupations are well served by simulation training. Much of the airline piloting training is done by simulation. It works well for aviation, nuclear reactors, high voltage line work, and medicine. Most of these disciplines have embraced simulation as an essential part of training. Simulation is part of many surgical training programs, but it has other uses.
When was the last time you practiced a trauma resuscitation, an ultrasound fine-needle biopsy, laparoscopic maneuvers, or an unusual technique that you seldom perform, but when needed, must be pulled off very well? Most of us taking this simulation course agreed that time, money, and ego may get in the way of maintaining those skills for those rare instances when they are needed. Surgeons might want to consider simulation to keep some of our rarely used skills from getting rusty.
If you’re going to make a costly error, I would very much like you to do it on a piece of plastic, not on a patient. There are no consequences for messing up a procedure on a manikin and this kind of practice might teach you something critical. Practicing reduces stress and improves the performance of those placed on the spot by real-life events. Do you think Captain “Sully” Sullenberger could have landed that airliner in the Hudson River safely if he hadn’t practiced with countless mind-numbingly complex simulations? Sure, luck plays a part, and innate ability plays a part. But skill, knowledge, and practice are your best bet when all the eyes in the room swivel to you in a moment of crisis.
You may think that simulators have to cost $100,000 and be completely realistic to do the job. That’s not true. A banana, orange, or stick of butter can be fabulous sims for a med student. Felt and cardboard can make a realistic cricothyroidotomy model.
Surgeons all over the country are using simulation training to learn how to be better without getting real blood on their shoes. If you haven’t participated in a training simulation recently, I double-dog dare you to try it and tell me you found it without merit. The ACS Surgical Simulation Summit is being held in March 2019 in Chicago. You might want to check that out.
Dr. Hughes is clinical professor in the department of surgery and director of medical education at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Salina, and Coeditor of ACS Surgery News.