Joint forces hail success of incident simulation
The day got off to a predictable start for Garda Dónal Daly and Garda Deirdre Hayes at the regional communications centre, Anglesea Street Garda Station, Cork.
By mid-morning, they were knee deep in a major incident after an incoherent civilian they’d arrested and taken to hospital for treatment turned out to have a potentially lethal biohazard in his possession.
As his colleague was overcome by toxic fumes, and the only attending nurse in the resuscitation room collapsed, Gda Daly found himself dealing with a rapidly deteriorating situation. The only help at hand was the emergency medicine consultant, whose principal concern was saving the patient, while the garda’s focus was on implementing a crime scene and maintaining radio contact with colleagues as he waited for backup.
He did so while carrying out CPR on his arrestee; while talking to his ailing colleague in an effort to establish what condition she was in; and ultimately, while trying to stop the doctor damaging the crime scene as she tended to her patient.
Finally, garda colleagues from the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives team (CBRNe) arrived in full biohazard/gasmask kit and the resus room was sealed off to the outside world.
Phew. All in a day’s work at the Assert Centre at University College Cork (UCC), where we saw firsthand the wonders of applying the science of simulation to training for the unexpected. This was a red letter for Assert, the first time the centre joined forces with gardaí to collaborate on a serious incident escalation simulation project. It worked a treat.
The simulation took place in two acts. The first took place in a simulated emergency department where patients/actors played rowdy individuals, concerned parents of a sick baby and a seriously ill man.
Inspector Finbarr O’Sullivan arrived into this volatile mix with the incoherent male, later played by an interactive dummy in resus. Tensions were high. Back-up was called.
Act two was in the resus room where Gda Daly was essentially left to run the show. He left the other actors for dead (literally), even though he had no idea, prior to being tasked to UCC at 9.30am yesterday, that he was being put to the test.
He was thrown straight in while senior members of various emergency services looked on — fire chiefs, EM doctors, Defence Forces, Irish Coast Guard, airport personnel, ambulance personnel, prison service, civil defence.
The object of the exercise was to watch how different services response in a crisis and to see what was done well and what could be improved on in a real-life situation.
A couple of themes emerged. Firstly, it was clear that people had different priorities: To save the patient or to preserve a crime scene? The question was — how to reconcile these priorities to best effect?
The second was the importance of good communication. Use of medical jargon by the doctor and garda-speak by the garda did not help. The point was made by attendees that often in emergency situations, people work in silos, when they need to be more aware of what’s going on around them.
“We can all develop tunnel vision in a situation like that,” Tony Lynch said in a debriefing session afterwards.
Dr Lynch, Assert clinical lead for the First Response Simulation Unit, spent four months planning the simulation with Assert colleagues. They hope to generate more interest among other first responders to take part in similarly tailored simulations.
The gardaí are enthusiastic, especially Sgt Peter Murphy and Insp Finbarr O’Sullivan, responsible for co-ordinating the CBRNe response in Cork.
Yesterday’s event took place on foot of a chance meeting between Insp O’Sullivan and consultant obstetrician/gynaecologist Barry O’Reilly, one of the driving forces behind the development of Assert, which also contains hi-fidelity suites for surgical training, and a virtual reality room which can simulate everything from a cockpit to a nightclub.
Patrick Henn, director of education and research at Assert, says it will eventually be an augmented reality suite (think 2002 Tom Cruise film Minority Report). Barry McPolin, chief superintendent, Cork city, believes what Assert has to offer is invaluable.
“It’s an excellent learning experience, it’s an excellent means of testing our preparedness and our capacity to respond to a situation like this,” he said. “There’s a huge volume of learning to be gained from it and I look forward to working with them in the future.”
For Gda Daly and Gda Hayes, it was back to the regional communications centre. Enough excitement for one day.
