YORKTON – Students of Suncrest College's Fire and Primary Care Paramedic programs teamed up for a training exercise June 27.
The exercise simulated a car crash and the real world problems that paramedics and firefighters would be tasked in solving together.
"It's really important for the students to learn skills that they are going to apply in the real world when they get into a paramedic field or a firefighting field," said Neil Sundeen, Provincial Training Consultant with the Sask Public Safety Agency.
"This type of scenario — training we're doing today — is what they will experience in real life," added Sundeen.
Sundeen said the training exercise featured several scenarios where full-sized cars had experienced accidents including one scenario where an injured person was trapped inside a vehicle and required removal.
"So our paramedics have gone in and done patient assesement and they've remained with the patient in the vehicle and then the firefighters remove the portions of the vehicle that need to be removed in order to get access to the patient," said Sundeen.
"We've taken off doors. We've taken off roofs. We've set off airbags. We've done all kinds of things that would happen in real life and it's been a very positive event for us today," said Sundeen.
Sundeen said exercises like the one on June 27 will serve the public well.
"Fire departments and emergency medical services work very closely together in a vehicle accident for patient care. For safety. For a whole bunch of reasons. I have found in the past that knowing the roles and responsibilities and the capabilities of the other agencies is important as well as learning positive communication on scene — making sure that patient care is the focus and that the agencies work collaboratively for patient care," said Sundeen.
"I would encourage all paramedic and firefighter training courses to do this.I was involved with one at Regina Fire and Sask Polytech. It was very well received and I think that the more really good practical hands on training that we can give the students the better they'll be able to perform their job when they get out into the workforce," said Sundeen.
