Sim Package Keeps Students in the Moment

It’s a constant dilemma for purveyors of EMS training: Training manikins can help teach students needed skills in a realistic way, but they’re expensive in an area where budgets are perennially tight.

The National EMS Academy found a solution in the ALSi medical simulation package from iSimulate. Based around a pair of common iPads, ALSi provides an advanced simulation platform with five training screens, including monitor, defibrillator and AED capabilities. The package is more affordable than traditional training manikins.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and I find it engages the students in a way that really puts them into the environment of the simulation,” says Greg Mullen, who oversees paramedic training at nine Academy locations in Louisiana and Texas. “It’s a step into the realism that we want them to be comfortable with when they actually start to take care of patients. This allows that, and expense-wise it’s more realistic.”

ALSi’s monitor iPad is displayed in a case to resemble a cardiac monitor. Once the student is set up, the instructor’s iPad can be used to wirelessly control the display as the simulation progresses. Changes to patient condition can be timed or action-based, and vital signs trend realistically either on the fly or as programmed. ALSi can be used on any manikin, live role-player or as a stand-alone educational tool in a classroom presentation setting. 

“You can program and change things to whatever you want, and it’s very easy,” says Mullen. “You can actually program in a day’s entire scenario so that very little is required of the instructor as it runs. That lets the instructor actually focus on evaluating the student doing the scenario, as opposed to worrying about stopping and looking to see what they have to adjust.”

Students appreciate the simplicity, he adds, and seeing key values displayed automatically on the monitor eliminates the need to break simulation to ask about them.

The ALSi system comes with approximately 100 waveforms that are adjustable, including ECG, invasive BP, EtCO₂ and SpO₂, as well as over 20 additional custom parameter settings. Users can trial it with full support for 30 days. For more see https://www.isimulate.com/alsi/.