Cardiff University’s road traffic collision simulation
On Monday 22 May 2023, South Wales Fire and Rescue Service (SWFRS) took part in a large road traffic collision (RTC) simulation organised alongside Cardiff University. The event was organised as an induction to pre-hospital medicine for over 300 Cardiff University second year medical students, at the Cardiff University Heath Park West Campus.
With around 30,000 people being killed or seriously injured on UK roads in 2022, RTC training is an essential component of safe and effective casualty management. Whilst many services undertake multi-agency training, exposure to the complex pre-hospital emergency medicine (PHEM) environment is absent or limited in most traditional university courses for aspiring healthcare professionals.
As part of medical student training at Cardiff University (CU), SWFRS ran the one-day RTC simulation with over 100 personnel from CU, SWFRS, Welsh Ambulance Service Trust (WAST), South Wales Police (SWP), Joint Fire Control (JFC) and Medserve (BASICS). Using the wide range of expertise and skill set within the team, each scenario was carefully scripted to provide an accurate scene, with appropriate wreckage, mechanism, and injury pattern of casualties. These essential requirements helped to provide a template to design realistic, clinically complex, and visually impactful scenarios.
Richie Matthews, Watch Manager for SWFRS Training Department, said:
“What a great opportunity for shared training and development, and a learning experience like no other, with Operational Crews (from Ely and Cardiff Central Fire and Rescue Stations), JFC, SWP, WAST, Medserve, and Cardiff University.
“The usual setting for this amount of interaction between the agencies is on the roadside during a live incident, so to have this opportunity to showcase the multi-agency approach to RTCs to 350 of the country’s future healthcare professionals was a privilege to be a part of. Particularly to show them our workplace outside the confines of a clinical setting, and to demonstrate the patient journey from roadside to recovery.
“These simulations open the potential for generating ‘cross agency’ learning and training assessment events, to promote interagency understanding of casualty care. With the increasing implementation of complex medical interventions at the roadside, increased exposure of all emergency practitioners will surely enhance their efficacy and effectiveness in delivering the best patient outcomes. SWFRS hopes these developments will stimulate other medical schools and regional emergency services providers to consider adopting this approach, to promote and enhance the delivery of pre-hospital care.”
Dr Tim Johnson, Deputy Programme Director of Cardiff University School of Medicine Centre for Medical Education, said:
“As a medical school, we have a duty to best prepare our students for every eventuality as ‘public servants’. Casualty outcomes are vastly improved with early and effective intervention, and providing pre-hospital experience for all our undergraduates will give them the confidence to act appropriately when they are first on the scene of any traumatic incident. Providing our students with the opportunity to witness and play a role in an immersive and realistic RTC scenario has been invaluable and has inspired many of our junior trainees to consider pre-hospital medicine as a career.
“The exposure to safe and effective communication by all of the emergency services staff on the day, in a highly stressed environment, will clearly disseminate areas of good practice –leading to more opportunities for interdisciplinary learning, as our students progress through the MBBCh programme at Cardiff.”
Results from the simulation
Thematic analysis of the evaluation survey revealed that most respondents found the realistic/visceral nature of the scenarios, the demonstration of multiagency teamwork, and enjoyment in participation to be of most importance in the delivery of the learning outcomes.
The survey also revealed how informative the training was, and the importance of a high level of organisation and timing associated with the event.
Alessia Mahoney, an undergraduate medical student, said:
“I was travelling home past Cardiff centre when I witnessed a car accident. Even though I knew that I was only a third-year medical student, nonetheless, I got out of the car. Announcing to everyone at the scene that I was a medical student felt almost comical at first, and yet, seeing the crowd of people gathered around immediately disperse, it instantly felt very intimidating.
“Straight away, I was able to help by assessing the for danger, checking on the casualties, and assigning roles to the bystanders. It was clear that even beginning by asking for a patient’s name and telling them yours puts you in such an incredible place of trust, with the casualties comfortable to be opening up to you. It was so beautiful to see how many people came together to try and be a part of helping.
“I can’t begin to express my gratitude for the experience that the Road Traffic Collision event provided us with, not only to know what to do, but also just to be aware of what to expect. It made getting out the car less daunting.”
Will Hedges, Senior Paramedic of WAST, said:
“I had a phone call on my way to work last night from one of the paramedics who attended an entrapment RTC yesterday afternoon, where the driver had sustained multiple serious injuries. He said that having taken part in the simulation at CU meant he felt confident in assessing and managing the patient, and how valuable he felt the training was. He said he had taken a lot of learning from it that he was able to implement into his practice at scene and wanted to pass his thanks to everyone involved in setting up the day.”