Dental, EMS, and nursing students collaborate for medical simulations at PPCC

A first-of-its-kind training took place Tuesday at Pikes Peak Community College as dental, nursing and EMS students ran a real-life simulation to coordinate the treatment of a medical emergency.

Adrienne Wilk, Nursing Simulation Coordinator, said, “the importance of the simulation is to improve continuity of care for the patients we serve in the community.”

During the simulation, the dental students recognize the issue and start basic care. It’s not just dental emergencies – students saw simulations of issues like choking, allergy complications, seizures, and chest complications.

The dental students then call EMS students, who stabilize, assess, transport and give life-saving medication. From there, the patient is then passed to the nurses who work with the physician to reassess the patient and give a further diagnostic.

This is the first time that these three programs have run a simulation together.

“Dependently, the programs here under the Allied Health umbrella at Pikes Peak Community College do simulations, we’ve just never conducted simulation together, so this is a first of its kind,” Wilk said.

Drew Maurer, an EMS student, said it helps with the confusion that the three disciplines might have when working together.

“The benefit of it is for each of the disciplines to see how every discipline works and what they can do on a patient,” said Maurer.

All of this, according to Wilk, is to help work towards a better patient outcome.