Meet our new crew – From simulation to action

Funded through generous gifts in Wills, Helimed House, EAAA’s Norwich base, enables crews to have the training, rest and welfare facilities required for a fully 24/7 helicopter operation. This includes a state-of-the-art immersive, simulation suite to support clinical training and innovation in pre-hospital emergency medicine. As we welcomed a new cohort of doctors and critical care paramedics to EAAA in August, the simulation suite was key to their week’s intensive training to prepare them for their new role with EAAA.

Doctors Tom, Arthur, Natalie, Lesley and Bruce, and paramedics Callum and Matty are already experienced clinicians in fields, including emergency medicine and anaesthetics, and have brought their skills to EAAA. The start of this journey, as it is with each new cohort of clinicians, was an intensive one-week course to become a Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine (PHEM) practitioner at the highest level – to make a difference to somebody facing the worst moments of their lives.

After mornings of lectures, workshops and discussions on areas including critical care, emergency surgical procedures and major incidents, the clinicians put the theory into practice, using the simulation suite to consolidate their learning.

The suite can replicate environments and challenges that clinicians may experience when attending patients, including recreating conditions such as darkness, wind, cold and heat. With images, videos and audio of people, interiors and landscapes projected onto the walls, the simulation suite can support clinicians’ training to remain focused in what can be chaotic environments.

With realistic patient manikins, the scenarios tested the clinicians’ decision-making under pressure, as well as communication with each other and our emergency service colleagues, in order to provide the best possible treatment and care to every person they attend.

The simulation suite contributes to the rigorous training and assessment of the doctors and critical care paramedics who join EAAA as they begin their placements with the charity. They benefit from, not only the first-class facilities, but the latest research in pre-hospital emergency medicine, which all ultimately help to saves in our region.

Consultant in Prehospital Emergency Medicine and Head of Clinical Services, Neil Flowers, says, “As the new group of doctors and critical care paramedics now begin a period of supervised clinical shifts and ongoing assessment, they will continue to build the advanced skills and confidence required to deliver safe, high-quality care in the most challenging circumstances.

This programme plays a vital role in preparing our clinicians to support patients and their families during some of the most critical and vulnerable moments of their lives.”