IU Health Emergency Medicine doctors and nurses collaborated with Fishers Fire Department personnel during a recent three-day emergency medical services training. The medical staff assisted firefighters in training for real-world medical emergencies through simulations, fake patients, and fake blood. The goal was to prepare firefighters to provide on-the-scene emergency medical care to safely transport patients to the hospital.
Natalie Zipper, manager of clinical operations for IU Health Saxony’s emergency department, emphasized the importance of partnership in benefiting patients. By getting to know each other’s roles and responsibilities, both medical staff and firefighters can work together seamlessly to save patients during emergencies. Fishers Fire Department meticulously planned various scenarios for the training exercise, including medical emergencies during fires, crew injuries, multiple gunshot emergencies, and more.
Throughout the scenarios, nurses and doctors from IU Health Saxony and North hospitals offered medical feedback to the firefighters and took on roles as patients and bystanders. The collaboration between IU Health and the Fishers Fire Department aims to ensure a smooth transition of care from the moment first responders arrive on the scene to the patient’s time at the hospital. Lieutenant Jeff Stephenson from the Fishers Fire Department highlighted the importance of establishing a strong teamwork relationship between first responders and hospital staff for better patient outcomes.