Physician assistants receive cadaver training to enhance life-saving skills
A group of seven UNMC faculty went to the University of Nebraska at Kearney on April 11 and brought three lightly-embalmed human cadavers with them. The group used the cadavers to teach emergency life-saving skills to 20 physician assistants from rural Nebraska communities.
Using the cadavers and a mannequin patient, the UNMC instructors taught a variety of emergency procedures such as how to:
- Put in a central line;
- Insert a chest tube; and
- Perform a lumbar puncture.
The lightly-embalmed cadavers have better texture and elasticity and more realistic color than normal cadavers and provided the participants with a more real-life setting for learning and performing the procedures.
The physician assistants were all members of the Nebraska Association of Physician Assistants (NAPA).
The UNMC faculty included three physician assistants, two emergency medicine physicians and two gross anatomy instructors. Participants included:
- Darwin Brown, physician assistant;
- Michael Wadman, M.D., emergency medicine physician;
- Wes Zeger, D.O., emergency medicine physician;
- Sarah Keim Janssen, Ph.D., gross anatomy instructor;
- Tamara Ritsema, physician assistant;
- Stephane VanderMeulen, physician assistant; and
- Carol Lomneth, Ph.D., gross anatomy instructor.