Ski patrollers no 'dummies'

Ski patrollers receive training

Jon Meyermailto:Meyerjmeyer@idahopress.com

Monday, October 1st, 2007

MERIDIAN— They may not be human, but after seeing the training simulation dummies that Bogus Basin ski patrollers worked with Sunday in Meridian speak, bleed, vomit and cough, many people might be hard-pressed to tell the difference.

Although the patrollers’ annual recertification didn’t involve all of the ultra-realistic functions that the dummies, called High Fidelity Human Patient Simulators, are capable of, the opportunity to work with the $40,000 trainers, on loan from Idaho State University’s campus Boise, gave them a new perspective on their jobs.

“It presents them with a physiologically realistic patient and lets them work through things you can’t do with a healthy volunteer,” Joe Crutcher, a trainer during the simulation and the director of clinical and critical care education for ISU, said. “It shows them these unique situations in a safe environment where they can make mistakes and learn from them.”

The patient simulators were only one part of the annual Outdoor Emergency Care recertification modules, which provides patrollers the opportunity to brush up on procedures that may have become hazy during the off-season.

With the ability to exhibit pulses, blood pressure, respiration rates and heart and bowel sounds, the dummies let the participants practice with equipment that might not be able to be used on a healthy subject, David Pederson, an assistant professor at ISU and lab director for the human patient simulation laboratories, said.

“Some of them may not have touched the equipment since last year and gotten a little rusty,” Pederson, who also assisted in the presentation, said. “This way they’re able to brush up again and ask questions without the urgency of an emergency situation.”

More than 120 of the resort’s 203 patrollers participated in the training Sunday. Others attended a similar session held two weeks ago. The events are similar to paramedic training, the patrol’s first aid chair Scott Putnam said, differing only in the fact that the patrollers’ victim treatment takes place in the woods.

“We have to be able to carry everything we need and, like most first responders, package them up and stabilize them to get them to someone that can help them further,” Putnam said.

The sessions have also provided a forum for the patrollers to polish skills that may come in handy during the Special Olympic events scheduled to take place at Bogus and other area resorts over the next two years.

The Special Olympic Invitational Games are coming to the area in 2008, with about 8 different countries attending; in 2009 the Special Olympic World Games will come to Idaho, bringing as many up to 12,000 additional competitors, coaches, supporters and spectators to local resorts, said Charles Butrick, the Special Olympic World Game coordinator for the Bogus Basin ski patrol.

“Because of the diversity, we wanted to spend the next couple years focusing on the special challenges that will come with these events,” Butrick said.