I've sat through some impressive board meetings, but I don't think we knew what we were walking into when Dr. Salamea and Dr. Martinez led us into the main ECU911 emergency headquarters of Cuenca, the third largest in the country, and asked for permission from the big wigs of the city for us to train their emergency personnel. We initially assumed coming down to Ecuador we would only be doing our research part and leaving the rest to the LATE students, but timing has worked its way in for our team of seven to be in charge of teaching MIVT presentations to nearly 400 emergency workers in the city of Cuenca starting July 18. It is an honor to be trusted enough to not only do the research, but use what we find to then improve a system with great potential.
After we left the meeting, our heads were swimming with questions. Are we qualified? What do we really know? Where do we start? Previous research and good mentors provided us with some ideas, and the doctors will be checking off the end product, but has been basically up to us to design our part of the implementation. We have decided to focus on helping the workers first understand WHY the information is important, then use the data to show where they've STRUGGLED, then teach MIVT BASICS and let them practice using real life examples. We will finish by handing out a basic presentation card to help them remember what the doctors have requested they present to help the hospital care be ready to go on patient arrival.
As we are winding down to the end of our research, we have noticed some common themes of information that is commonly, and very uncommonly, presented. Asking questions, we have found a common reason is that there has previously been NO training on MIVT. One of the ambulance companies, MSP, has a doctor that rides on it and has been incredible in helping us with the project. Through ride-alongs with him, we have learned a lot about the strengths and weakness of the system. Although he is extremely competent medically, the last time he heard about MIVT was in medical school, and has learned as he has gone what doctors want to hear. If a doctor doesn't feel like he has enough training, we know our part of the program will be vital in helping the rest of the workers understand it as well, which is why he has been supportive of our initiative. We are very excited to have the opportunity to teach what we have learned throughout the year.
A real example we plan to use in our training is about a man from Macas, a jungle city 8 hours by bus or a half hour by plane from Cuenca. After his car was basically run over by a bus on a Friday, numerous things went wrong in the communication by pre-hospital workers before he arrived to Cuenca by Monday night, including not even letting the hospital know they were bringing a severe trauma patient! With a fractured C6, ribs, and clavicle, a neck collar wasn't even placed for his bumpy ride, and he now only has sensation in his lower extremities. We hope this will prove the value of the training we are doing, as it could have been drastically different with proper workup prior to hospital arrival.
Though we work hard each night, we also play hard during the day. Here are a few pictures of our adventures. Que gara es Cuenca.
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| Example of the First Draft of the cards we will be handing out at the end of the course |
As we are winding down to the end of our research, we have noticed some common themes of information that is commonly, and very uncommonly, presented. Asking questions, we have found a common reason is that there has previously been NO training on MIVT. One of the ambulance companies, MSP, has a doctor that rides on it and has been incredible in helping us with the project. Through ride-alongs with him, we have learned a lot about the strengths and weakness of the system. Although he is extremely competent medically, the last time he heard about MIVT was in medical school, and has learned as he has gone what doctors want to hear. If a doctor doesn't feel like he has enough training, we know our part of the program will be vital in helping the rest of the workers understand it as well, which is why he has been supportive of our initiative. We are very excited to have the opportunity to teach what we have learned throughout the year.
A real example we plan to use in our training is about a man from Macas, a jungle city 8 hours by bus or a half hour by plane from Cuenca. After his car was basically run over by a bus on a Friday, numerous things went wrong in the communication by pre-hospital workers before he arrived to Cuenca by Monday night, including not even letting the hospital know they were bringing a severe trauma patient! With a fractured C6, ribs, and clavicle, a neck collar wasn't even placed for his bumpy ride, and he now only has sensation in his lower extremities. We hope this will prove the value of the training we are doing, as it could have been drastically different with proper workup prior to hospital arrival.
Though we work hard each night, we also play hard during the day. Here are a few pictures of our adventures. Que gara es Cuenca.
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| Before the Friday night storm... |
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| After |
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| On top of the New Cathedral in the center of Cuenca |
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| Pumapungo, Incan ruins with a collection of exotic birds, anthropology museums, and delicious Belgian waffles |
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