SIM-Nebraska visits Bennet Rural Fire for important EMS training

BENNET, Neb. (KOLN) - Volunteers with Bennet Rural Fire received some crucial, rare training Thursday evening from one of the most important mobile training units in Nebraska.

SIM-NE, or Simulation in Motion - Nebraska, came out to the department’s fire station to provide hands-on emergency medical training.

“The ability to drive this simulator out to their parking lot means they don’t have to travel two, three hours to the large city and send their whole department to get this training,” said Phillip Oelschlager, who is SIM-NE’s Southeast Regional Coordinator and Lead Trainer.

The program is lead by the University of Nebraska Medical Center and is funded by grants and donations. All of the training provided to Bennet, and other departments that request SIM-NE, is free.

Bennet Fire Chief, Tim Norris, says the training is critical for their department because it gives them real-life experience without having to have a real, live patient.

“We’re in the process of getting an ambulance here within a year, so we’re going to be transporting,” Norris said. “When we start transporting, we’re going to have to take them all the way to the hospital, and we’re going to have to be doing things longer. So this is really good training for us.”

UNMC says the customized SIM-NE trucks feature dual slide-out room extensions for a simulated emergency room and simulated ambulance, along with a control room. “Each truck has high-tech, computerized human patient simulators that talk, breathe, have heartbeats, and can react to medications and the other actions of the learners,” UNMC said in a release.

“Each mobile unit is equipped to recreate a realistic environment for learners that includes medical supplies, pre-programmed computerized medical and trauma scenarios, monitors that display vital signs of patient simulators, heart monitors/defibrillators, mock medications, and audio/video recording and playback capabilities,” UNMC says.

Norris says the process of receiving their ambulance that the department went ahead and purchased last fall has been slowed, due to supply chain issues and an increased demand for ambulances across the country. He adds that, as of right now, they’re expecting their unit to arrive at some point in the summer of 2023. It will be the volunteer department’s first ambulance service in their history.

Until then, Norris says they’ll continue to work with Lincoln Fire & Rescue when it comes to a transport service for patients needing emergency medical services.

Oelschlager says SIM-NE has four simulation trucks stationed in Scottsbluff, Norfolk, Kearney and Omaha, and will celebrates five years of conducting this service next week. He adds that the program has had a drastic impact of the lives of many, without many of the patients that first responders help even realizing it.

According to UNMC, SIM-NE was initially funded with a grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. With the grant complete, the goal is to keep the project funded and provide the training at low or no cost to attendees. Partners and funders are being sought to sustain the training program.

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