Time (and Training) Is Life: Health First Partners With Eastern Florida State College, Local First Responder Agencies - Space Coast Daily
When responding to a trauma or mass casualty situation, the phrase “time matters” is a universal truth. The sooner a patient can be reached, treated, stabilized and transferred to a hospital setting, the better the chance of survival and quality of life.
Home»Home»Time (and Training) Is Life: Health First Partners With Eastern Florida State College, Local First Responder AgenciesFIFTH ANNUAL EMS Skills Fair BRINGS HUNDREDS OF BREVARD COUNTY FIRST RESPONDERS TOGETHER TO Eastern Florida State College Melbourne Campus FOR CRITICAL SKILLS TRAININGABOVE VIDEO:Health First Partners With Eastern Florida State College, Local First Responder AgenciesFirst Flight’s Joseph Corman, flight paramedic, provides emergency response instruction to first responders during the EMS Skills Training program at Eastern Florida State College in Melbourne. (Health First Image)BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – When responding to a trauma or mass casualty situation, the phrase “time matters” is a universal truth. The sooner a patient can be reached, treated, stabilized and transferred to a hospital setting, the better the chance of survival and quality of life. Expert training, however, is just as – if not more – important, and Health First this week helped kick off a three-day EMS Skills training fair to ensure cutting-edge lifesaving medical skills are readily applied in a real-life emergency situation. Hosted this year by Eastern Florida State College at its Melbourne campus, the three-day training event is expecting over 400 regional participants from first responder agencies across the Space Coast. This marks the fifth consecutive year of the event, which has grown in attendance each year – and it continues to grow through the commitment and collaboration of regional EMS partners. Dr. Larissa Dudley, EMS medical director for First Flight and multiple Brevard County municipalities, gives opening event remarks and instructions to dozens of EMS Skills Training program at Eastern Florida State College in Melbourne. (Health First Image)Under the supervision of Dr. Larissa Dudley, EMS medical director for First Flight and multiple Brevard County municipalities, and emergency department medical director for Holmes Regional Medical Center, Skills Fair is designed to provide advanced, hands-on education for numerous municipal EMS agencies – alongside the dedicated Eastern Florida State College EMT and Paramedic faculty and Health First’s First Flight critical care transport team. Brevard County first responders practice resuscitation techniques during the EMS Skills Training program at Eastern Florida State College in Melbourne. (Health First Image)During the three-day event, paramedics will rotate through four advanced life support (ALS) stations. EMTs will complete four basic life support (BLS) stations, and both groups will participate in a combined obstetrical emergencies station, creating a comprehensive, hands-on training experienceClinicians, educators, and flight professionals train side by side, refining critical procedures, sharing best practices, and strengthening the inter-agency relationships that are so essential to delivering exceptional emergency care throughout our region. First responders from numerous Brevard County agencies gather for initial remarks and instructions prior to the beginning of the EMS Skills Training participants at Eastern Florida State College in Melbourne. (Health First Image)“This is a training opportunity where you get your hands on the equipment that maybe you haven’t touched in a while. You go through the movements on how to do these procedures. You work with your team to rely on each other as a coach and as an aid, to be able to guide you when there’s uncertainty. So, it’s essential that we practice these things,” said Dudley. “There are numerous lifesaving procedures that these first responders need to perform in moments that matter. And day-to-day activities in the fire station don’t always lend the ability to practice these. When patients are calling, they need to know and be confident that the people coming to their aid are able to do all these procedures in order to save someone’s life so they may arrive alive at the hospital. ”