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According to organizer and STAT Air Ambulance Clinical Nurse Manager Kyle Gibson, 65 people came out to attend a bi-annual continuing education training put on by the organization. Gibson described surprise and excitement at the large crowd that was over the 40-person estimate they had initially planned for.
"We were planning on 40," said Gibson, "so we had to do some major changes to what we were doing." He said that since the classrooms in the upstairs area of the STAT Air hangar can only accommodate around 40 people, they moved an airplane out of the hangar bay, put up a projector screen and continued with the training as planned.
Emergency medical technicians are required by law to attend 24 hours of continuing education every two years. To support that requirement, Stat-Air offers a course, which this year started on Jan. 3 and ran to Jan. 5, to their fellow EMTs in their service area – most all of northeastern Montana – free of charge.
"This is a way we say thank you to EMTs in our area," explained Gibson. "We don't charge for this course." Gibson said because collective trainings like this one can run up to $200 a person, many EMT organizations choose to do their own training. He thinks the large group and specialized trainers adds value to the education.
Training this year included courses on everything from "airway management" to active shooter training and highway safety. The last two included instruction from Sgt. Robert Weber, of the Glasgow Police Department, on active shooter scenarios and Montana Highway Patrol Trooper David Moon on highway safety and accident avoidance.
"As you know," said Gibson, while discussing the highway safety instruction, "there have been a lot of tow truck drivers and such that have passed away due to roadside accidents."
Discussing the active shooter training, Sgt. Weber explained that, for him, the training was intended to make sure every first responder is prepared for the worst. "It's a scary day in this age when people do terrible things for no reason at all," said Weber, before adding that the training was designed to help bridge the gap between first responders and law enforcement when dealing with hostile actions.
The short hour-and-a-half-long class focused on human responses to crises and gave the EMTs some tools to be aware of those responses to fear and how to overcome them in a hostile environment. The GPD Sergeant said that he felt the training was tragically necessary but also well timed.
"You know, it just so happens that on Jan. 17 it will have been 11 years since an active shooter, here in Glasgow, killed an EMT at the hospital," explained Weber, referring to the January, 2009 incident in which EMT Melissa Greenhagen was killed by a shooter in the Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital parking lot.
The training focused on awareness of active shooter scenarios, what EMTs can do in such situations and how to react. The police sergeant said they discussed awareness training and reactions based on tools like "combat breathing" and the OODA (observe, orient, decide and act) loop, which breaks down decision making in stressful environments.
Aside from the active shooter and highway training, Gibson said the highlight for the participants was probably checking out the airplanes and getting to see what is onboard. For Gibson though, the highlight was having so many people attend the course.
STAT Air will be offering another 12-hour continuing education course before the deadline on March 20, which will be geared towards advanced EMTs who need a total of 36 hours of continuing education every two years.
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