TSMU students placed third in a simulation medicine competition in Poland

Team of Ternopil State Medical University, consisting of students of the Faculty of Medicine Bohdana Pereviznyk, Kateryna Vorobets, Nargiz Dzhavadova, Roman Huk and Ihor Bihar took the third place in the SimChallenge Student Competition on simulation medicine. The competition took place on April 26-29, 2018 in Lublin, Poland. Accompaniying the team were head of the Department of Disaster and Military Medicine, professor Arsen Hudyma and director of the Stimulation Training Center Halyna Tsymbaliuk.

TSMU team also participated in the VI Congress on Medical Education and Simulation for students and young professionals. They learned how to organizing similar competitions at TSMU and studied the work of the center of simulation training of Lublin Medical University. TSMU delegation also discussed the possibility of academic exchanges for medical simulation training and invited a team of Lublin Medical University students to participate competition TernopilSimOlymp 2018, planned in September 2018 at the academic and recreation complex Chervona Kalyna.

TSMU team visited the newly created simulation training center at Lublin Medical University. It is housed in a dedicated building with an area of more than 8,000 square meters and is set up as a virtual clinic, starting from the heated emergency intake room, to specialized departments, surgical suites, resuscitation units, etc. Meeting with the center’s leadership, TSMU group received an invitation to the opening ceremony and for a teacher training course.

The Competition on simulation medicine consisted of 3 stages. The first task involved working as an emergency department team. Using mannequins, a defibrillator, the complete set of tools for airflow restoration, blood transfusion and IV equipment the organizers of the competition have created situations closely approximating reality. Team leaders also worked with laboratory and consultants of various specialties in order to resolve clinical situations. In this simulated situation, the teams encountered an adult patient with paracetamol allergy who took a combined analgesic containing this drug. The patient was transported to the emergency department for medical assistance. Each team examined the patient and had to diagnose anaphylactic shock followed by prescribing correct treatment.

The second task was to assist a victim of an accident. TSMU team successfully diagnosed the damage and immobilized the victim. The third task involved evaluation of practical skills: ECG, catheterization of the bladder and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Of the 11 participating teams, TSMU medical students took overall 3rd place.

TSMU also attended a lecture on simulation education in medicine, which addressed one of the most important needs: development of communication skills. All participants had the opportunity to take part in various workshops: urgent states in pediatrics, ultrasound scans in urgent situations using FAST method, examination of injured patient in emergency department, interpretation of CT and angiography results, eye examination, airway management, etc.