Contemporary simulation education for undergraduate paramedic students

In recent years there has been an emphasis on the reduction of medical errors in patient management, especially in the hospital setting. There is no identified reporting structure for the prehospital setting like that used in some hospitals in Australia. The Australian Incident Monitoring Study (AIMS) has been developed and used predominantly by anaesthetists and in the intensive care unit to report actual management errors, near misses, and positive events.1 The main identifier of prehospital errors in Victoria has been the Consultative Committee on Road Traffic Fatalities (CCRTF). This group identified that 76 (84%) of prehospital problems (n = 90) in 2002/2003 contributed to the patient’s death, with 67 (75%) being actual patient management problems. It was noted that between the 1997/1998 and the 2002/2003 review there was a 20% increase in rural road traffic incidents and fatalities.2–7 With total Victorian road traffic fatalities decreasing by 28% over the last 5 years and a smaller decrease in other road traffic related injuries, including serious injuries, paramedics are being exposed to significantly less trauma, especially in rural and remote areas of the state.8 The Victorian prehospital data suggest that there is a need for simulation training, especially in trauma management, for undergraduate students before their employment in rural Victoria as their exposure to some trauma types will be infrequent. The Department of Community Emergency Health and Paramedic Practice (DCEH the efficacy, role and evaluation of simulation as an educational resource is beyond its scope. We describe how the indoor simulation centre and the outdoor road trauma simulation centre …