Idaho WWAMI students practice emergency medicine during wilderness retreat
Rafting accident simulation prepares future doctors for rural medical challenges
BY Article by Emma Zado, WWAMI writer
Photos by Emma Zado and Christine DePriest, WWAMI
March 1, 2024
A young girl ran up the bank of the Salmon River, grabbing the hand of the first person she saw.
“Help! Help! Our raft flipped over, and my dad won’t wake up!”
Thirteen Idaho WWAMI students split up across the riverbank. Some flocked to an unconscious man’s side, a few spread out to search the tree line, while others called out for those still able to move. The victim casualty simulation was officially underway.
St. Mary’s Health and Clearwater Valley Health (SMH-CVH) hosted their seventh annual Wilderness Medicine Retreat for Idaho WWAMI students this February — a weekend of rural medical education and workshops intended to teach students the skills needed to treat people with meager supplies. The highlight was the high-stress victim casualty simulator, where students must rush into an emergency situation and triage patients while waiting for emergency medical services (EMS) to arrive on scene.
Back on the riverbank, all of the able-bodied victims had been gathered off to the side, one girl had been treated for a leg injury, and the unconscious man’s neck was being stabilized — all in a matter of minutes.
No one was actually injured; they were all local Cottonwood citizens, volunteering their afternoons to play victims in a rafting accident simulation designed by SMH-CVH for Idaho WWAMI students to practice their emergency rural medicine skills.
“On my count. One. Two. Three. Lift,” directed Bridget Ward, first-year medical student and group-appointed Incident Commander for this exercise.
The students hoisted the unconscious man wrapped in a tarp into the air, carrying him up the sandy hill to the trailhead.
“Rock! Watch the rock behind you,” said Megan Wong, the student guiding the group up the hill.
“And scene!” called Cottonwood Police Chief Terry Cochran as the tarp was lowered onto the ground.
This year, a rafting accident simulation was designed so students could get a taste of an actual emergency situation, which, in reality, gets rescuers’ blood pumping and stress levels elevated.
“In any high stress incident, two things are going to happen to your body,” Cochran said. “You’re going to lose part of your hearing, and your vision is going to narrow. If it’s something where there is a lot of stress, you’re going to have to physically concentrate on both of those things.”
For a lot of us, this was the first time doing this kind of thing, stepping up and doing tourniquets. I looked around, and there were people being carried out of here. I trusted you guys.
Bridget Ward
first-year medical student
This simulation was designed to replicate that feeling.
No one was warned about what they might find on the riverbank. It was the students’ job to quickly assess the situation, then triage and help the patients to the best of their ability.
“I think we all did a good job just jumping in,” Ward said during the after action debrief. “For a lot of us, this was the first time doing this kind of thing, stepping up and doing tourniquets. I looked around, and there were people being carried out of here. I trusted you guys.”
The students were successful in saving the victims and were praised for their teamwork and willingness to dive right in. Shauntall Funke, EMS director at SMH-CVH made it a point to acknowledge how those skills are critical for emergency medicine.
“You could tell that you guys functioned as a team,” she said. “That’s the biggest thing with EMS, we come down here and we don’t have to tell each other what to do. Each person just knows their role and does it. We all work like a well-oiled machine, and I think that you guys did really well doing that, especially with your most critical patient and getting him out of here.”