Military Students Train Olympic Ski Team Physicians

During one wintery day in December, RVU military students trained Olympic Ski Team physicians at the annual Medical Emergencies in Skiing and Snowboarding (MESS) Training Course at Beaver Creek, Colorado. The students chosen from the Military Medicine Program to conduct the training were Heather Martin, OMS II, Jamie Truax, OMS III, Zachariah Devine, OMS II, Nicholas Maher, OMS II, Andrew Warren, OMS IV, and SD Warren's wife, Lauren.

The student instructors donned humanworn simulators known as Cut Suits TM as they manipulated the slopes alongside physicians for the Olympic Ski Team. Using the Cut Suits, the student instructors simulated a variety of injuries, which required the Ski Team physicians to utilize treatments from needle decompression and chest tube insertions to wound compression and cricothyrotomy.

Despite conducting the Hyper-Realistic ® training simulation in a challenging, snow-covered mountainous environment, trainees assessed and managed the simulated treatment of both responsive and unresponsive patients, while demonstrating the ability to treat medical emergencies in adverse conditions.

The Military Medicine Program would like to thank Gillian Bower, High Performance Director for U.S. Ski & Snowboard, and Deidre McGee, former RVU Military Coordinator, for helping to coordinate this simulation event.