Thursday, 20 July 2023
Academics, firefighters, paramedics and a doctor from around the East Midlands recently came together for a road traffic collision (RTC) exercise to help health science students from the University of Nottingham to better understand a patient's journey, from the road to hospital.
The exercise was the first of its kind in a collaboration between Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, the University of Nottingham, East Midlands Ambulance Service and Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance. Students studying nursing, adult, child and mental health fields, and physiotherapists all took part in the simulation to gain real-world learning experience.
The exercise, held at Highfields Fire Station, simulated two cars that had collided in a head-on collision, with five people trapped in the vehicles. Four live casualties were used and a realistic training dummy to simulate injured people who needed to be rescued.
It demonstrates the true interdisciplinary approach to healthcare, emphasising collaboration and partnerships being embedded from undergraduate education.
Fire crews from Highfields, Eastwood and Stapleford fire stations took part in the exercise and affected a fast rescue from one of the cars and on the second car, folded a roof over to release casualties.
Front-line clinicians from the East Midlands Ambulance Service and a critical care team from Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance were on hand to demonstrate emergency medical treatment to the causalities.
A few days after the exercise at Highfields, students, had a further simulation of the events at Queen's Medical Centre, held in their immersion suite, simulating the ambulance journey, management in A&E and then discharge planning on the ward, so they were able to track a whole patient journey and what happens to people with serious injuries from RTCs.
Station Manager Jonathan Wilson of Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service said: "We were delighted to have students from the University of Nottingham's School of Health Sciences join us, along with our blue light partners. Not only does this exercise help students to understand more about the medical journey of a patient who has been in a traffic collision but it is helpful for us to continually train and improve our skills so we can be the best when we have to put it into practice for real."
Carli Whittaker, Director of Clinical Skills at the University of Nottingham, added: “This has been a great opportunity for the School of Health Sciences students to participate in the patient journey from incident to rehabilitation. It demonstrates the true interdisciplinary approach to healthcare, emphasising collaboration and partnerships being embedded from undergraduate education. It is an excellent example of shared knowledge between professions and one that will continue to be developed.”
Greg Cox, Divisional Director for Nottinghamshire at EMAS said: “We frequently work together with other blue-light services and our air ambulance colleagues at the scenes of road traffic collisions, so this was a great opportunity to test and enhance our response to these types of incidents.
“I would like to thank those in attendance who represented EMAS and to our colleagues at Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service for hosting us at their station. This detailed portrayal of that inter-agency working in action would have no doubt been very insightful for the students in attendance.”
Clinical Fellow Dr Matt Thacker from Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance said: “This was a fantastic opportunity for all teams to help educate future healthcare practitioners in areas that may not get exposure to. Putting our interoperability training into practice in a simulated environment was also a huge benefit to ourselves.”
Story credits
More information is available from Adam Mallaby, Media Relations Manager in the Press Office at The University of Nottingham, on +44 (0)115 748 5719 or by email at adam.malaby@nottingham.ac.uk
Adam Mallaby - Media Relations Manager for the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (Maternity Cover)
Email: adam.mallaby@nottingham.ac.uk
Phone: 0115 748 5719
Location:
Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked 32 in Europe and 16th in the UK by the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024, the University of Nottingham is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience, and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our students. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement.
Nottingham was crowned Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 – the third time it has been given the honour since 2018 – and by the Daily Mail University Guide 2024.
The university is among the best universities in the UK for the strength of our research, positioned seventh for research power in the UK according to REF 2021. The birthplace of discoveries such as MRI and ibuprofen, our innovations transform lives and tackle global problems such as sustainable food supplies, ending modern slavery, developing greener transport, and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
The university is a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally - and our graduates are the second most targeted by the UK's top employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2022 report by High Fliers Research.
We lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, a pioneering collaboration between the city’s two world-class institutions to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing for residents in the city and region we are proud to call home.
More news…