Aspirus MedEvac holds emergency patient transporting training at Howard Young

Aspirus MedEvac workers participated in a training at Howard Young Medical Center’s aircraft hangar on Feb. 18.

Jenn Kimmerling, one of two Aspirus MedEvac educators, took other Aspirus employees through different aspects of handling patients in emergency scenarios, as well as continuing different types of therapy for intensive care or emergency room patients while those patients are being transported.

Training like this, she said, is mandatory and conducted once every four months.

“The opportunity our providers have with these trainings also, I think, is a good way for our providers to come to us,” Kimmerling said. “Make it a safe place for them to come to us and say ‘Hey I have questions.’ There’s nothing wrong with that. So when somebody comes to me and says ‘You know what, it’s been about a year since I've worked with this certain medication administration for this particular patient, can we offer training on it? …’ This gives them that opportunity to practice on a mannequin, to practice on devices that we have so they can safely perform the procedure, ask questions and then be successful when it happens on a real patient.”

Jessica Combs, the other Aspirus MedEvac educator, took employees through training in an ambulance with different scenarios related to a woman giving birth. 

“We want to keep them up on all of their skills, especially the things that they don’t get to touch everyday or scenarios that they don’t see very often,” she said. “There’s always a chance they’re going to come across that in real life, so we want them to be as confident as possible when they’re going out into the field and coming across something that’s not so common. We want them to have that practice in a more controlled environment so that they feel confident when they encounter that in real life.”

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].