Prehospital Cardiac Arrest Management Simulation

doi:https://doi.org/10.21980/J8V057

Prehospital Cardiac Arrest Management Simulation

Nicklaus P Ashburn, MD^*, Bryan P Beaver, MD^*, Robert D Nelson, MD^*, Michael T Fitch, MD, PhD^* and Jason P Stopyra, MD^*

^*Wake Forest School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC

Correspondence should be addressed to Nicklaus P Ashburn at n.ashburn@wakehealth.edu

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21980/J8V057 Issue 3:4

Cardiology/Vascular EMS Simulation

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ABSTRACT:

Audience:

This simulation is for emergency medicine educators to use when teaching prehospital cardiac arrest management to emergency medical technicians (EMTs), paramedics, critical care transport providers, medical students, and emergency medicine residents.

Introduction:

Prehospital cardiac arrest resuscitation is a key area in healthcare provider training. Over 350,000 cardiac arrests yearly occur in the prehospital environment.¹ Successful prehospital cardiac arrest resuscitation necessitates mastery of basic and advanced life support techniques, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), defibrillation, airway management, and advanced pharmacotherapies.^2–5 Effective communication skills and leadership are requisite for performing these actions in a high-quality, team-focused CPR approach.^6–8 It is difficult to perform a well-organized cardiac arrest resuscitation due to the stressful nature of and infrequent exposure to the event. This simulation is designed to empower learners to develop a systematic approach to cardiac arrest resuscitation while also reinforcing the importance of teamwork.

Objectives:

At the end of this simulation learners will be able to:

Perform team-focused CPR using effective leadership and communication skills during prehospital resuscitation.
Employ high-quality CPR with an emphasis on compressions and early defibrillation.
Demonstrate appropriate airway management utilizing an oropharyngeal airway and bag-valve-mask, blind-insertion airway device, and/or endotracheal intubation during cardiac arrest.
Recognize and appropriately defibrillate pulseless ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation.
Formulate an appropriate differential diagnosis for pulseless electrical activity.

Method:

This simulation can be taught using a high-fidelity simulation model. It may also be adopted for use with a low-fidelity simulation model or as an oral boards case.