The woman tasked to play the mentally ill bystander during the University of St. Francis’ accident simulation Saturday morning pulled out all the stops.
Anna Griswold and Leah York, social work students at the school’s Fort Wayne campus, and their program director, Rebecca Coleman, counted symptoms of at least five different mental illnesses the woman pretended to exhibit as they worked to keep her calm and out of the way of medical personnel. Her acting certainly ratcheted their part of the exercise up a few notches.
“We could’ve easily had six social workers here for this, but in a hospital setting, there would likely be only two staffed at a time,” Coleman said. “And with our mentally ill patient, we definitely could’ve used a psych social worker.”
Responding to a five-car pileup, students in the school’s EMT/paramedic and nursing divisions worked to get 23 “accident victims” safe and to the proper medical outfit, Franciscan St. Anthony Health, EMS Director Rob Dowling said. This year, the social workers and lab technicians were also included in the exercise.
Dowling, who coordinated the event, set up the situation this way: A driver was stung by a bee and lost control of the vehicle, causing the accident on Interstate 65. Five cars were involved, resulting in two fire department extractions and lots of blood and gore.
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One “patient” was eviscerated, while another had a thoracic injury that would ultimately leave her quadriplegic. There was also an infant fatality, and another patient came in coding.
The paramedic team, along with the nursing team, were able to practice “therapeutic hypothermia protocol” on the patient, a mannequin set up to work with hospital equipment. When a heart patient is revived but remains unconscious, emergency workers and hospital staff work to keep the patient’s temperature between 32 and 34 degrees Celsius for 24 hours because it preserves neurological function, Dowling said.
Marsha King, dean for the Crown Point campus, said this is the second time the school has performed an accident simulation. As she watched, she was pleased at the progress.
“Whenever you can get students together, it’s beneficial,” King said. “We’ve been with these students for a month, so while we’ve gone over what we would do, they don’t expect some of the things we’ve added, like the coding patient.”
If there was anything Jaclyn Murzyn, of Schererville, learned, is that teamwork truly is needed to make sure things happen the way they should. Murzyn was chosen as the emergency room manager and looked frazzled as the exercise wrapped up.
“It’s not what you expect at all,” she said. “You really have to think quickly, and it moves a lot faster than you think. You don’t know what’s coming in and just want to get people to the appropriate place.”
Griswold, of Fort Wayne, and York, of Columbia City, saw firsthand how vital social workers are as first responders.
“Our being there helps the nurses do their jobs effectively,” Griswold said. “They can deal with symptoms while we deal with everything else.”
But both agreed the patient with mental illness added a level for which they weren’t prepared.
“With as big a room we were in, I was scared she’d get violent,” York said.
Northwest Indiana’s District One Emergency Services Team was on hand to oversee the exercise’s structure. Dowling said they would likely be called out in big accidents to provide logistics.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.