This Training Manikin is No Stiff

Manikins are a vital training tool for EMS providers. For one thing, there are just some procedures you can’t practice on a live patient without that patient’s live already being in danger. And by then it might be too late if providers aren’t comfortable performing procedures as if they’re routine.

The Life/form Advanced “Airway Larry” Airway Management Trainer from Nasco is a great alternative to practicing on live patients, while maintaining lifelike responses. It offers tongue swelling and laryngospasm in addition to all the features on the standard models, so students can be presented with the additional challenges they may face in the real world.

Shaun Fix, founder of Emergency Medical Consultants, Inc. based in Port St. Lucie, FL, is an advocate of the “Airway Larry” trainers for just that reason. “We use them in our advanced emergency airway class. They allow us to do more technical skills, like adding in edema of the tongue and or constriction of the vocal cords. The instructors like them because they’re easy to use and the students frequently don’t realize that it’s a difficult or advanced training manikin. So, originally the students plan on this being a simple task, and the instructors are able to surprise them with something more difficult to make them use the kind of critical thinking skills they’ll need to use in the field.”

Fix is also quick to point out that the price of the Life/form Advanced Airway Management Trainers makes them ideal for any agency. “Not everyone can afford a $50,000 simulator. For the right person it’s the right product. You can fit this into your budget and still provide a better experience than just the standard airway head.”

And, he adds, the “Airway Larry” has features that much more expensive manikins have, but it’s also versatile so agencies can use it with existing training equipment without having to purchase additional equipment.

Visit eNasco.com/healthcare.