Nearly a hundred emergency first responders and staff met early this month on the University of Florida Health Science Center Jacksonville campus to attend the largest medical simulator-based national training event for avian flu and hurricane preparedness, and for lessons in hospital administration during such emergencies.
Conducted by UF’s Center for Simulation Education and Safety Research located on the Shands Jacksonville Medical Center campus, the event targeted first responders assigned to Disaster Medical Assistance Team, or DMAT, FL-4 as well as other disaster management staff from as far away as Washington, D.C. and Colorado.
A DMAT is a group of professional and paraprofessional medical personnel (supported by a cadre of logistical and administrative staff) operating under Homeland Security that provides medical care during a disaster. DMAT FL-4 is located in Northeast Florida and includes Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist, Levy, Marion, Putnam, Nassau, St. Johns and Union counties.
Training large groups like this is a new approach for nonmilitary disaster response teams, and it is very realistic at all levels,” said David Vukich, M.D., a professor and chair of the emergency medicine department at the UF College of Medicine Jacksonville. “Everyone is familiar with how the military trains in functional units, but civilian health care teams like DMATs rarely have the opportunity to bring all their members together for coordinated, high-fidelity training,” he said. “By simulating a mass casualty event, all members of the DMAT can be trained and tested in their individual roles and we can test the coordination, management and performance of the entire team.”
CSESaR is a collaborative effort supported by the College of Medicine Jacksonville and Shands Jacksonville Medical Center. The 24,000-square-foot center allows Special Forces medics, emergency responders, hospital personnel, residents and students to receive specialized computer simulation training for anticipated environmental, medical or terrorist disasters. CSESaR’s mission is to promote quality patient care, expand patient safety initiatives and enhance multidisciplinary health care, education and teamwork through simulation and goal-directed training.