TNMU Co-Organized the Ukrainian Emergency Medical Aid Championship “Bukovyna Medical Rally – 2024”

Despite the war, on May 23-25, 2024, Bukovyna hosted the X Championship of Ukraine in emergency medical care “Bukovyna Medical Rally – 2024”. It was attended by teams from all regions of Ukraine, including representatives of Luhansk region, who today work and live in Dnipro, as well as from Donetsk region (Kramatorsk). 26 teams and 110 participants competed for the main prizes. The organizers of this year’s championship were the “Ukrainian Scientific and Practical Centre of EMC and Disaster Medicine of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine”, the All-Ukrainian Council of Resuscitation and EMC, Chernivtsi Centre for EMC and Disaster Medicine, Ternopil National Medical University.

The organization of such championships has a long history in Ukraine. In 2008 and 2010, the 1st and 2nd championships were held in Ternopil, 2011 in Kamianets-Podilskyi, 2012 in Rivne, 2013 in Kyiv, 2016 in Kharkiv, 2017 in Sumy, 2018 in Cherkasy, and 2019 in Transcarpathia. Then the pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine forced a break. And so, the championships again brought together the best representatives of the emergency medical service. Among the organizers and judges of all these competitions were teachers, as well as students and graduates of I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University.

Quality changes in the organization and refereeing

A lot has changed during this time. First of all, it concerns refereeing. Most of the referees are pre-hospital care instructors and/or instructors of “advanced” level courses of international professional associations. Assistant referees are representatives of the educational and training departments of all regional centres of emergency medical care and disaster medicine, certified as “Pre-hospital care instructors”.

TNMU was represented by the team of teachers of the Department of Emergency and Simulation Medicine Arsen Hudyma, Halyna Tsymbaliuk, Antonina Chervatiuk, Yurii Denysiuk, Nargiz Dzavadova, Roman Huk, Alina Pokryshko, as well as the Department of Children’s Diseases with Paediatric Surgery – Emilia Burbela; Department of Paediatrics of the Faculty of Postgraduate Education – Olha Dutchak. It is nice to note that TNMU graduates – former members of the All-Ukrainian Council for Resuscitation and Emergency Medical Care – were also included in the team of referees: Tetiana Oper and Viola Svirzhevska, Oleksandr Byshevych and Andrii Danchak. They have considerable experience in organizing EMC championships.

ДFor each team at each stage, there was a different task, similar in content and complexity, which required the refereeing team and the head referee – Halyna Tsymbaliuk – long painstaking work on creating scenarios, evaluation sheets and instructing the referees.

The referees evaluated:

correctness of diagnoses given to patients;
physical endurance;
triage of patients;
provision of emergency medical care;
manoeuvring on a special vehicle.

For the first time, the tasks that the war brought into our lives were implemented. All skills were previously practiced by instructors during training with the help of foreign partners. This applies to interhospital transportation, which simulated the evacuation of a wounded person with long-term escort by the EMC brigade, the use of chemical means of destruction, etc.

Also, for the first time, they systematically approached emergency medical care, where, in addition to emergency medical care tasks, a competition was offered at the pre-hospital stage, which determined the level of skills and competencies of teams during work at the early hospital stage, which is an integral component of the emergency medical care system. Here, ultra-complex dummies of the 3G level were used to reproduce an emergency. The representative of TNMU, Roman Huk, was the leader in their application, preparation, management and simulation.

In addition, for the first time the competition was held with 100% provision of EMC teams with new equipped carriages and with the availability of new clinical guidelines (protocols) for providing emergency medical care to patients at the pre-hospital stage.

For the first time, paramedics, specialists of a new specialty, began training in 2018 at TNMU and the Cherkasy Medical Academy.

Organizational aspects

Traditionally, the championship was held with the support of the “Ukrainian Scientific and Practical Centre of Emergency Medical Aid and Disaster Medicine of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” and the All-Ukrainian Resuscitation Council, which, together with TNMU, are leaders in the implementation of modern trends in the development of emergency medical aid in Ukraine.

We send our appreciation to the actual organizers of the championship, the Chernivtsi Regional Military Administration, the Chernivtsi Centre for Emergency Medical Aid and Disaster Medicine, who made a lot of efforts to ensure the successful work and stay of the participants, referees, and accompanying persons.

The organizers also involved employees of the State Emergency Service, the police and other law enforcement agencies in order to create conditions close to reality. Thus, everything is as it happens in reality. This year, for the first time, unique simulation equipment was used – mannequins that fully reproduce the human condition. They were provided by the “Medical and Charitable Aid France-Ukraine” association for training Ukrainian doctors.

The fact that the First Lady, Olena Zelenska spoke at the opening with a welcome speech also testifies to the level of the competition.

The main prize was an EMC car. In addition, for the first 3 places, the winning teams received breathing apparatus “Hamilton-T-1”. The total value of the prize fund amounted to almost 5 million hryvnias.

All teams successfully passed the tests and proved their professionalism. The winner was the team of the Volyn Centre of Emergency Medical Aid and Disaster Medicine, which received a new ambulance for its health care facility.

TNMU is a leader in the training of paramedics

TNMU has six years of experience, three graduations of paramedics, annual improvement of the educational and professional program based on feedback from stakeholders, teachers and students, and, finally, the emergence of a new specialization in the specialty “Nursing” – “Paramedic”. Our university was the initiator of the implementation of this training program, therefore, during the championship, the teachers of Ternopil Medical University carefully watched the performances of the teams, which included paramedics.

So, our graduate, paramedic Anastasia Sizhuk who currently works at the Volyn Centre of Emergency Medical Aid and Disaster Medicine was member of the EMC team, the winner of the Bukovyna Medical Rally – 2024. In the top ten are two more EMC brigades with paramedics from among our graduates: the Lviv Centre of Emergency Medical Aid and Disaster Medicine – Orest Levitskyi, Khmelnytsky Centre of Emergency Medical Aid and Disaster Medicine – Nazarii Zhuravskyi and Daria Valetnikova. We congratulate the winners and are glad that the results of our work on the training of paramedics have excellent practical applications.

At the same time, time does not stand still, we are discussing the training program “Paramedic”, and we will be grateful for your feedback and wishes.

Arsen Hudyma.