The way firefighters and paramedics undergo training is changing and now entering virtual reality. Instead of working with a dummy, students face a more realistic scenario as they are armed with a headset and a cursor.
Robert Moore is the CEO of Virtual Education Systems, which has partnered with the Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department to provide EMS assessments using virtual reality. This kind of training is the first of its kind.
“We’re using virtual reality to assess their competency in managing an emergency patient case,” explained Moore. The system contains 48 different cases both in the hospital and pre-hospital.
The company’s CEO says trainees can pretty much treat the person on video the same as they would a real patient.
“If you want to put an IV on your patient you can put an IV. If you want to do CPR you can, if you want to intubate your patient you can intubate,” said Moore.
Alan Jimenez trained using virtual reality.
“It makes you feel like you’re there even if you don’t have a patient in front of you,” Jimenez said.
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With this technology, the Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department hopes to help candidates hone decision-making skills and learn best practices so they can respond with confidence when there is a life-and-death situation.
“It’s automatically tracked and graded so we take out all the subjective and grade them objectively and their performance instead of somebody else’s views,” said Rob McGilloway, Division Chief of the department.
