COCC adds childbirth, newborn simulators for critical hands-on training of health professionals

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) --  Critical life-saving skills were practiced Thursday on new equipment at Central Oregon Community College. Paramedics and health professionals experienced hands-on training with life-like childbirth and newborn mannequins.

The simulation focused on childbirth and infant resuscitation. The experience was about as real as it can get, making use of more than $350,000 in technology.    

Paramedic Alex Mcclaren, who works in Sunriver, trained for two hours.

"To be able to go through these scenarios from start to finish is a really great skillset to hone and practice, and it's also something that I can bring back to my station,"Mcclaren said.  

"For me, the two scariest environments, I think, would be the very difficult airway and childbirth," he added.

The equipment was purchased with $350,000 in grant funds. COCC partnered with St. Charles, OHSU and Cascades East Area Health Education Center.

People came to the COCC Bend campus from AirLink, Sunriver, Black Butte Ranch, St. Charles and Spray to train this day.

EMS Program Director David Schappe said, "We got a bunch of area practitioners and clinicians in here trying to train together in order to just really have more realistic expectations about how to perform in high-risk situations."

COCC has a program for training students to work in emergency services. With exposure to the new equipment during course work, graduates may require less agency training when they get jobs.

"The other goal of this is not just for training COCC students, but to try and bring all the different clinicians in the region together," Schappe said. "It's just to raise the overall level of communication and professionalism, and ultimately balance that and benefit our patients."

The simulation will happen one day each quarter, and there's funding to continue through next year.