Health care professionals from more than 50 communities, including many from rural Nebraska, attended UNMC’s annual Rural Emergency Medicine Course in Omaha this week.
The two-and-a-half-day course, which ran from Wednesday to this morning, was designed by UNMC and Children’s Hospital & Medical Center for physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners.
“This conference is a perfect example of how UNMC impacts the entire state of Nebraska and the region,” said Russell Buzalko, Ph.D., assistant professor of emergency medicine at UNMC and one of three co-directors for the event. “This conference gives the practitioners a chance to review low-frequency, high-risk emergencies and practice lifesaving procedures in a realistic, controlled teaching environment.”
The highly relevant and informative core sessions are updated each year by board-certified emergency medicine physicians. The 2017 event included small group skills labs using patient simulators, lightly embalmed cadavers and standardized patients.
“The conference gives these professionals a chance to work on new skills, or to hone skills that they may not have used for a long time, to work on issues they may only see occasionally in a rural setting,” Dr. Buzalko said.
Procedure-based learning included basic intubation, rescue airway devices and surgical airways, splinting, intraosseous access, chest tubes, domestic violence recognition and treatment, mega-code simulations and EKG interpretation.
UNMC and Children’s Hospital & Medical Center of Omaha co-provided the event with the goal to offer diverse learning opportunities related to both adult and pediatric emergencies.