May 6, 2014
Story by Joe Vinduska
Photo by Brandon Steinert
Barton Community College hosted its annual Field Ops Day on Saturday on the Barton campus to give its medical and emergency services students a chance to take their skills out of the classroom and into life-like emergency scenarios.
More than fifty students participated from the Criminal Justice, Medical Assistant, Nursing and EMS programs in a variety of intense, realistic scenarios designed to be as close to the real thing as possible. Volunteer “patients” from all over the community allowed themselves to be battered and bloodied in frighteningly accurate make-up to give the appearance of realistic traumatic injuries ranging from severe lacerations to broken bones.
Scenarios range from domestic violence to multiple vehicle accidents. Many of the scenarios are set up so a patient will go from the scene to the emergency room, which is populated by nursing and medical assistant students, and could also be questioned by the Criminal Justice students throughout the scenarios depending on the circumstances. The experience is truly full circle and all-encompassing for the patients as well as all the Barton students throughout the various programs.
Instructor and Coordinator of the EMS Program Jenny Ladd coordinates the event and said everyone who participates agrees to be completely serious and in-character so that the students get as genuine of an experience as possible.
“When students go out in the field a lot of times they have no real experience,” she said. “They’ve never done a mock call or anything. Field Ops Day really gives them a wakeup call as to what’s going to happen.”
Criminal Justice student Blakelee Cooper said the intense experience helps create awareness for what actual emergency scenarios will feel like.
“It feels very real,” she said. “It’s an adrenaline rush and a good hands-on learning experience. It’s hard to remember all the little procedures, but there are things that I definitely won’t forget again because of this.”
Criminal Justice student Staisha Miller said Field Ops Day helps show students how to apply what they’ve learned in class.
“It puts everything you’ve learned in class to the test to see if you actually know what you’re doing,” she said. “It’s totally different when you’re actually doing it.”
The event was sponsored and supported by the following: Barton County Sheriff’s Office, Pawnee County Sheriff’s Office, Russell County EMS, Ellinwood EMS, Pretty Prairie EMS, Trails West EMS, Claflin EMS, Nickerson EMS, Marshall’s Wrecker Service, LifeTeam Hutchinson and many volunteers throughout the community who served as support staff, victims and patients.