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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

MCC Breathes Life into Mannequin Training Program


A new mannequin that replicates human breathing gives paramedic students at Monroe Community College a life-like training experience.

“The mannequin coupled with our new cardiac monitor – the same kind used by most area ambulance companies – provides one of the most life-like simulations,” says Paul Bishop, coordinator for MCC’s Basic EMS Training Program. “Students have a better learning experience. Ideally, the more realistic the training, the better the patient care is provided in the field. That’s our desired outcome.”

Bishop purchased the mannequin through a $44,000 Perkins grant and collaborated with area physicians and paramedic educators to develop a curriculum specifically geared to improving the life-saving skills of paramedics and advanced EMTs. “Airway management is the cornerstone to emergency treatment. If the airway can’t be managed, the person dies,” explains Bishop, a part-time paramedic in addition to his duties at MCC. “The first priority for the paramedic is to ensure that the patient can move air in and out of the lungs.”

Through computer software programmed by the course instructor, the mannequin can replicate not only a person’s breathing but all of their vital signs. And if the mannequin isn’t treated successfully, its condition will deteriorate just as a human’s would. For example, the instructor can set the respiratory rate at 18 breaths per minute and the mannequin’s chest will rise and fall rhythmically. Or, the tongue can be swollen to three times its size, giving paramedics the opportunity to learn how to manage the airway in such instances.

“The mannequin has been very useful,” Bishop says, “in training paramedics on the new RSI – Rapid Sequence Induction.” RSI is a practice that is used to induce unconsciousness through a specific protocol to improve treatment of the patient. Since RSI authorized in January by the Monroe-Livingston Regional Emergency Medical Advisory Committee, RSI has been used 17 times in Monroe and Livingston counties by paramedics trained using the mannequin.

“RSI may be used for a number of reasons, such as when a patient has had a head injury, is bleeding and having trouble breathing but is combative and won’t allow the paramedics to treat her/him safely,” says Bishop. “RSI allows the paramedic to sedate the patient and their breathing problem to be treated.”

The mannequin – called Sim-Man by its company’s creators, Laerdal Medical Corporation – appears human-like with flexible skin, white teeth and blue eyes, and it can be anatomically converted to either a man or a woman for applicable training.

Paul Bishop
PSTC
08/24/2004