Emergency medicine pumps life at Pitt

Many a drowsy and disgruntled Pitt student has shaken a fist at the STAT MedEvac helicopters… Many a drowsy and disgruntled Pitt student has shaken a fist at the STAT MedEvac helicopters that fly over Pitt’s dorms to reach the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Meanwhile, Pitt is actually training the medics who work on those helicopters, along with the paramedics who serve across the country and around the world.

Pitt’s School of Rehabilitation Sciences held an “Emergency Medicine Program Awareness Event” Tuesday, in the William Pitt Union Ballroom, to advertise what Walt Stoy, program director, describes as the “one of the best kept secrets at Pitt.” Pitt’s program in emergency medicine, which was established in 1997, is one of only fifteen such programs offered in the United States.

More importantly, it is the only one in the country that offers a bachelor’s of science degree in emergency medicine, and a doctorate with a focus in emergency medicine, according to program senior Lawrence Molina.

Outside the Union, paramedics and emergency medical services specialists invited passers-by to see UPMC’s educational vehicle — a large van that serves as both a disaster response and an EMS training vehicle, and also provides health care coverage at community wellness and prevention programs.

Inside the fair, students and instructors in the program demonstrated the tools of their trade, hooking up spectators to defibrillators to check their heart rates, demonstrating how to perform CPR, and how to insert a breathing tube into Resusci-Annie mannequins. Emergency medicine program students are taught to use these items and similar pieces of medical equipment in their junior years, during which they do clinical work both in emergency rooms and with City of Pittsburgh medics in ambulances.

“You’re interacting with patients while you’re in college,” said Jonathan Kroll, the program senior hooking up students to the defibrillator. “The same week we learn how to use IVs and the [electrocardiogram] machine, we’re doing it in the hospitals.”

By the end of their junior years, students can find employment as nationally certified paramedics. According to Megan Wood, another senior in the program, about 90 percent of emergency medicine students work full-time during their senior years, while also studying emergency medicine management and research techniques. Students in the program use their degrees to enter pre-med programs, or to become registered nurses, physicians’ assistants or medics for STAT MedEvac, the medical air transport service directed by the Center for Emergency Medicine. STAT MedEvac also provides medical direction for the City of Pittsburgh’s EMS.

“Pre-med is real intense without a lot of clinical experience,” Wood said. “In this program, I can work full-time and finish my degree. My chances for advancement are a lot higher than for other people in my position.”

Stuart Prunty, a program instructor who has served as a paramedic in both the United States and Ireland, introduced visitors to one of the first “patients” emergency medicine students encounter: the Simulation Mannequin, or “Sim Man.” Unlike his Resusci-Annie counterpart, this computer-controlled mannequin has an adjustable pulse and can simulate lung sounds. Pieces of his skin can be removed and replaced with injured skin, which even leaks blood, to simulate the condition of a trauma patient. Students can insert IVs and breathing tubes into “Sim Man,” who can wheeze, cough, and answer “yes” or “no” questions. He even has programs that allow him to simulate a whole series of symptoms that change as the medical student treats him.

“You basically assess him the same way you would a patient,” Prunty said. “You treat him right, he gets better; you don’t treat him right, he doesn’t get better. The whole idea is to have students practice knowledge to take into the street.”

Like Prunty, many of the students and instructors come into the program with experience in other parts of the country, or overseas.

“A lot of them have worked at STAT MedEvac, and a lot of them have worked as paramedics at some point in their careers,” Wood said of the instructors.

The program draws people from Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Korea. Firefighters from Seoul, South Korea’s capital, come to train in Pitt’s program. Talal Al-Kahtani, a student from Saudi Arabia, explained that Pitt’s program is well-known overseas, but that students at Pitt often come across the program purely by chance.

Students and instructors also return at varying ages and stages in their careers to re-enforce their skills and become familiar with new technology. For instance, Eric Jenkinson, who was demonstrating how to insert breathing tubes, served in the Air Force Reserves.

Similarly, Jennifer Jackson, another senior in the program, has been a nurse for three years at Children’s Hospital and serves as a flight nurse for STAT MedEvac.

“The only reason the helicopter gets called is because it’s the most intense situation, so they’re looking for people who do well under stress,” she said. “Most people that see what we do call us adrenaline junkies.”

Though STAT MedEvac medics must undergo three years of training as either critical-care nurses or paramedics, and must complete a “laundry list” of certifications, Jackson said that she sees her work — helping restore people to their health and their families or easing people into death — as a privilege.

“There’s a lot of life-changing, eye-opening experiences if you’re willing to dig in and get involved,” she said.