Sirens from emergency vehicles flooded a mock accident scene on a stormy Wednesday morning to bring hands-on learning to Red River Technology Center (RRTC) students.
Through the adrenaline rush, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and nursing students put their physical and mental skills to the test to rescue and treat accident victims April 24.
With the simulation event in its fourth year, Jeff Prater, EMS Instructor, said they are grateful for the support of the fire department, survival flight, Air Evac and emergency managers from the Chickasaw Nation, Duncan and Stephens County for the opportunity to give the students some hands-on experience and training.
“Everybody plays an integral part and the kids look forward to it,” he said. “It’s very beneficial to them, because they get to see some hands-on experience.”
Like the previous years, Prater said everything falls into place with everyone’s help. He said it’s a unique experience to see past students who went through the program come back to participate in the simulation event.
“I’ve got three students from the past three years, one from the first year, second year and third year, helping in the roles,” he said.
Hannah Barber said she graduated from the RRTC EMS program in 2023. She said it was around a year ago she stood in the same position for the live simulation scenario.
Now, Barber said she’s nearly a year into her career with Comanche County Memorial Hospital EMS in Lawton. She said she felt terrified of this day as a student to put everything they learned to the test.
Barber said they trained in clinicals and worked with patients, but the live simulation was the first time they rode out and were in charge of the situation.
“It was terrifying, but I loved it,” she said. “It was one of the greatest experiences ever.”
She said to come full-circle and be on the other side as an assistant and help the students learn and grow is a great experience as well.
“I absolutely love it,” she said.
Marisa Willer, 20 and a first year EMS student, said she was a little nervous to take on this challenge, but was eager to train in triaging and other necessary protocols that will be needed to handle these types of situations in real life.
“I’m hoping to be paramedic and run a truck,” she said.
Practical Nursing Program Director Amanda Churchman said the scenario has become an organized community event over the past few years.
“We have great support from different organizations in town,” she said.
Churchman said DRH Health emergency room nurses, DRH Health employees, former RRTC students, volunteers, actors from Marlow Drama Club and more help put this live simulation on for the students.
“We were fortunate to have some actual vehicles involved in wrecks that a wrecker service brought out for us,” Churchman said. “Every year we just kind of make it more realistic. It’s just a really fun time and a really great learning experience for our students.”
Churchman said the EMS students help the firefighters to get the victims out of the vehicles and then they help transfer the victims from the ambulance to the emergency room setup where the nursing staff, LPN and RN students, take over and run the scenario.
She said the mock drill features different scenarios, ranging from a code blue to a sprained ankle, stab wounds and more to help bring these real life situations to the students.
Jose Garza, an RRTC LPN student, said this experience gave him a real life feeling associated with these real life experiences. He said this put everything he’s learned into action.
After Garza graduates, he said he would like to work for a while and then continue his education to become a registered nurse and nurse practitioner.