A couple of Saturdays ago, February 12, the student-led Wake Forest Emergency Response Team (WFERT) spent the entire day carrying out the first of its bi-annual training sessions. WFERT is composed of twelve members, five probationary members, and numerous riders all of whom serve on a volunteer basis.

WFERT officers decided at the beginning of the Spring 2011 semester to conduct a training day for all of its members and probationary members and had planned up until the Saturday morning. In the morning, WFERT convened in the North Campus Apartments to educate and to review EMT-Basic skills ranging from assessing patients, properly applying cervical collars, administering oxygen, maintaining airways, and AED use. “The topics reviewed are the core of our EMT’s skills and allowed them [members] to refresh some uncommonly used techniques prior to being put to the test later in the day,” states captain and chief-elect for the 2011 academic year of WFERT.

After a short break for lunch, WFERT continued with a set of scenarios inspired by the “Behind Closed Doors” (or BCDs) program with which RAs are familiar.

Messinger explains why WFERT chose to hold BCD’s: “We chose to do these scenarios because they allow our members to practice their skills in a realistic environment while at the same time allowing us to evaluate their performance in a controlled environment. In addition, these scenarios allowed us to place our EMTs in difficult to train for situations which are vitally important but rare on a college campus, such as sudden cardiac arrest.”

For WFERT, a BCD involved selecting two members to respond to a simulated call in one of the apartments. Upon entering, the members were confronted with a patient (one of the WFERT officers), who could only describe symptoms- nothing else. They then had to identify and treat the symptoms of the patient which would continually change and evolve based on the treatment. There were a total of four BCDs for members to respond to consisting of some common and other not so common circumstances, ranging from a fall, requiring members to properly apply a cervical collar and backboard to a patient, to a patient presenting with chest pain which evolved into cardiac arrest, requiring the members to not only recognize the symptoms, but also perform CPR and administer a shock from an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). [comment on the reason for the various BCD’s].

Amy Lange, a sophomore, feels that “performing BCD definitely gave me more confidence in my skills and patient care.” In addition, the opportunity for others to critique and offer advice  was very beneficial and forced me to consider other possibly better alternatives of how I could have handle certain situations.”

After the BCDs, members then responded to a simulated mass casualty incident (MCI) where two cars collided, leaving six patients to be cared for. Equipped with limited supplies, members were put to the test triaging, treating, and extricating patients from the two cars as well as monitoring the surrounding environment as would be done in an actual MCI.

“As officers, we tried to enact a most challenging scenario – acting our parts as critically injured patients, covered in fake blood – but the rest of the squad handled the situation impressively.” Alli Osborne, lieutenant and co-captain elect, states.

The squad responded quickly and effectively to the MCI and completed the intense task of caring for six patients all with critical, complex, and rapidly changing health conditions. Lange points out that “most of us has very little previous training in dealing with mass casualties.  No amount of classroom can truly prepare you for a MCI and be telling how you will react, so going through the motions in a realistic but mock situation helped me understand how to better handle such a devastating situation if one were to occur on campus. Freshman Nick Ashburn adds, “Being a part of a college campus, I feel that MCI training is imperative in the event that an MCI actually occurs,” and that, “the squad responded in a very efficient manner to the MCI.”

And the officers and others agree with Nick, Dr. Price who is both the medical director for WFERT and medical doctor of Student Health stated that he was confident in WFERT’s ability to respond and meet the needs of the campus. Co-captain elect Osborne believes “the squad handled the situation impressively… treating patients efficiently and thoroughly.”

WFERT strives to provide medical care, education, and service to the Wake Forest University Community by providing emergency response care, public service, and community education.

If anyone is interested in volunteering for WFERT, whether you are an EMT, aspire to be one, or just want to ride along, please contact Alli Osborne (asboas8) or Mary Kat Kieth (keitmk7). WFERT is on call from 4:00pm to 8:00am on weekdays and is on call 24 hours on weekends starting at 4:00pm on Friday and ending at 8:00am Monday. In addition, WFERT provides standbys for events that require or prefer a North Carolina certified EMT-Basic. To schedule a standby, please visit groups.wfu.edu/wfert and fill out the standby request form or contact Rob Musci (muscrv8@wfu.edu)

Please remember, if there is an emergency on campus do not hesitate to contact us through University Police at (336) 758-5911 or simply dial 911.