Three Forks Area Ambulance Hosts Trauma Life Support Training
 | Author:
Nancy Marks, Reporter
Nancy Marks: MT43 News Secretary and News Editor |
Three Forks Area Ambulance Hosts Trauma Life Support Training
Nancy Marks
Reporter
If an emergency medical technician in your area is trained in saving your son’s life after a gasoline fire accident, he will have a better chance of surviving. Last Saturday Program Director Lee Roberts of Simulation in Motion, a Bozeman nonprofit group that provides simulation training for emergency workers, gave a course in trauma treatment.
Roberts, who has worked in the field for twenty years, now provides training to hospital workers, ambulance students and emergency workers in rural areas in Montana. His eleven students for the two-day training were from Hardin, Lewistown, Three Forks and Columbia Falls. The course, paid for by the Montana Department of Health and Human Services (DPHHS), emphasizes traumatic injury treatment for vehicle accidents, opioid overdose and children’s trauma. “The course is sponsored by the Vision Zero program run by the Montana Department of Transportation. Training participants pay nothing to take the course, not even a registration fee,” he explained.
Roberts pointed out that despite the fact the in-depth training was fully free, few medical personnel take advantage of the two-day event. “Every day we see emergency workers opting out of EMT work. A DPHHS survey shows the average age of emergency workers is mid-50s. We struggle to find younger people who want to serve in these extremely important positions,” he concluded.
For more information or to sign up for the next class call (406) 579-6580 or email lee@simmt.org.
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PhotoCredit: Nancy Marks
Image 1 Caption: Trauma Life Support students practice on a practice mannequin burn victim. Left to right: Program Director Lee Roberts, RN Aimee Verreth, Medical flight instructor Maile Allzer and student Jager Rogers.
