OhioHealth conducts sports medicine simulation training for school sporting events

As student-athletes resume the fall and athletic seasons, the safety of athletes and their families at games is a top priority.

OhioHealth held simulation training in sports medicine at Worthington Christian High School on August 31. The OhioHealth Sports Medicine Team and the OhioHealth Simulation Team taught family medicine residents and faculty at the school who would provide secondary medical care at games. The combined teams worked with a medical mannequin and two actors to show what could happen if someone had a spinal injury, concussion, or someone went into cardiac arrest.

“The biggest part of the simulation is learning to work as a team,” said Amanda Moskal, athletic trainer at OhioHealth. “And it’s important to communicate properly with everyone because we want everything to work very smoothly and seamlessly to make sure the patient is taken care of properly.”

Members of the OhioHealth Simulation team are able to control every breath, every sound of the manikin, and create a variety of scenarios in the body that could occur during a medical crisis.

The dummy used in the training was placed in the stands and programmed to go into cardiac arrest.

“He’s going to give us a little moan, and his family member who’s here with him is going to say he needs help and depending on what our learners are doing, he’ll be able to respond accordingly,” Emergency physician Brad Gable, MD, system medical director for the OhioHealth Simulation Team, said.

During training, two actors showed what injuries can occur on the field to student-athletes. Part of that training is getting them out of the field to treat them in a pre-hospital setting.

“They learn the anatomy of a helmet, the anatomy of the shoulder pads, learn how to remove and properly hold the C-spine and remove the shoulder pads at the same time,” Moskal said.

According to Moskal, most high schools in the Columbus area either employ athletic trainers or are under contract with a health system to provide medical coverage for sporting events.

“College football games will most likely have at least one athletic coach and one doctor on the sidelines,” Moskal continues, “there will be fewer medical personnel at sub-college and college events.”

If at a sporting event, Dr. Gable recommends the following:

• Know your surroundings – in any large event, know where emergency resources such as AEDs, nurse/trainer/rescue stations are located.
• Get help – use the resources above and call for help early, involve 911, or use local protocols which may be faster (bringing event personnel to the emergency room may allow them to use return channels/resources that have been predetermined.
• Know when to step back – when more expert people arrive, ask for what they need, then stay back and let them do their thing.