I am a Craigs List junkie. I am always scouring for my next used bike or some other item of interest. Here are three EMS Education uses for Craigs List.

1. Buy/Sell training manikins.

2. Find free or buy gently used furniture for your simulation lab.

3. Find models with specific medical conditions for photo and video shoots or simulation labs.

Scott Snyder shared on EMSEduCast episode 119 how he uses Craigs List to find models with very specific medical conditions for his case based learning program. Brilliant!

How have you used Craigs List as an EMS Educator or EMS Professional? 

This is how I use an RSS Feed to find items on Craigs List.

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Taking pictures of actually injured or ill patients is logistically difficult and often requires a lot of luck to encounter the specific patient for the specific situation you are describing in a lesson. Thus I do a lot of custom or staged photography of injured or ill patients to use in e-learning lessons.

Moulage is a process of applying makeup and prosthetics to simulate illness or injury. A few general principles I follow for moulage application include:

• needs to be appropirate to the patient’s mechanism, complaint, and history
• aim for realism and subtlety
• don’t over apply
• only moulage what is important for the learning points
• moulage what you are likely to photograph
• leave some wounds for discovery during the patient assessment

What are your moulage application and design tips?

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This is a guest product review by Sarah Leonard of Nursing Degrees. If you want to guest post or review on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Trauma Team Takes Franchise to the Next Level

Atlus Games has revived its long-running Trauma Center brand with the recent release of the new and improved Trauma Team for the Nintendo Wii, which boasts more realistic medical situations while toning down the over-the-top drama that the brand was known for. Although the original game concept took a page from such popular medical shows as ER and Grey’s Anatomy, the new version of the game aims for more realism at the expense of ridiculous soap opera antics.

EMT Gaming

The game features six specialist characters, each with their own game-play mode and storyline. One of the available options is to play as an EMT, “…where every ticking second could mean the difference between life and death.” In the first response mode, players will face extreme accident situations in an environment that depends on quick thinking. As an EMT, you must rely both on the directives of the patients, who yell out their symptoms, and on your own diagnostic knowledge (you will be taught to look for contextual clues). This version of the game also offers up a co-op mode to help you along when you get hung up.

The main goal of this storyline is to patch up patients and send them on to the hospital, but it’s no easy task. With only a handful of tools at your disposal (splints, bandages, etc.) you must stabilize the health of multiple patients who are rapidly losing vitals. If you’re in the midst of bandaging one patient while another goes into cardiac arrest, you must quickly switch over to administer CPR (selection is done with the analog stick while action is controlled with the Wii remote). Other tasks include removing shrapnel and splinting limbs. If all else fails, you can resort to the health boosting “stabilizer” injection to save the day, even if only temporarily. As to what this mystery substance may be, that is apparently a question best left to the medical professionals, but overall, the game-play has a frantic feel meant to mimic the heart-pounding adrenaline rush of an actual medical crisis.

Simulated Patient Assessment

Players interested in the EMT aspect of the game may also benefit from the diagnostic mode, which deals with identifying problems facing patients. At times, you may have to deal with people who are less than willing to participate in their own treatment (the grumpy old man who won’t let you touch him), so you must discover symptoms on your own before the patient will submit to further tests. This could be a useful tool for anyone in the emergency medical response field.

Game-play is supplemented with comic-book style cut scenes that, while aesthetically pleasing, are mainly meant to further the storyline rather than offer additional medical knowledge. However, the game itself is an apt representation of what actual medical professionals may experience, with a little drama thrown in to boost the excitement. For those who seek all the excitement of bandaging bloody accident victims with none of the actual gore, Trauma Team may just be the perfect game.

Guest Post by: Sarah Leonard of Nursing Degrees.

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EMT and Paramedic students spend too much time standing around waiting for their turn to use a high fidelity patient simulator or run through an instructor led patient assessment scenario. Good educators open lots of stations. Great educators program the waiting time. Here are 10 Everyday EMS Tips activities for the waiting time.

1. Read a CE article relevant to the scenario.
2. Write the narrative for previous patient assessment scenario.
3. Review a series of drug cards before starting the scenario.
4. Answer 10 multiple choice questions.
5. Write 10 multiple choice questions.
6. Listen to a podcast segment.
7. Measure their partner’s vital signs.
8. Create 10 review flash cards.
9. Find a medical reference website.
10. Prepare two questions for review session.

Add your ideas and tips in the comments area.

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As I waited to board different rides at Epcot Center during a summer 2009 visit, I noticed that many of the attractions had education activities and displays for riders to view as they waited. At Mission to Space I learned about space exploration. At the Soarin’ ride I joined other riders to interact with a large video display. Together we jumped and clapped to burst balloons that floated across the screen revealing different wildlife and landscape images. The activities helped pass the time, build anticipation for the ride, and introduce us to the attraction.

As an educator, I know that students frequently wait for their turn at a skill station, high fidelity patient simulator, or to complete a patient assessment scenario. Many times students receive vague directions to “review your skill sheets” or “do some studying” while waiting. After visiting Epcot, I have ideas to program the time while students wait for their next scenario, skill station, or simulator. These are a few of my Everyday EMS Ideas to program student down time:



1. Read a CE article relevant to the scenario.
2. Write the narrative for previous patient assessment scenario.
3. Review a series of drug cards before starting the scenario.
4. Answer 10 multiple choice questions.
5. Write 10 multiple choice questions.
6. Listen to a podcast segment.
7. Measure their partner’s vital signs.
8. Create 10 review flash cards.
9. Find a medical reference website.
10. Prepare two questions for review session.

Share your ideas to intentionally program your student’s downtime?

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