Statewide symposium June 27-29 will train nearly 700 emergency responders

One of the country’s oldest training programs for emergency care specialists and first responders will be offered free for the first time this year to 675 professionals around the state.

The 39th annual Emergency Care and Trauma Symposium, to be held June 27-29 at the Kalahari Resort and Convention Center in Wisconsin Dells, covers a wide range of emergency medical topics and response scenarios, such as injuries to children, brain and spinal cord injuries, improving response times, responding to automobile and farm accidents and education regarding special needs populations. The symposium is sponsored by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

This year, the symposium will also devote a number of sessions to emergency medical service as a public health initiative.

"Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) are the first level of health care that people will encounter in many situations," says Medical School Outreach Specialist Robin Arndt. "They are well-known and well-connected in their communities. They’re in a good position to play a safety education and prevention role with schools and civic groups."

This will be the first year that all registration costs will be covered. The UW–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health is supporting the symposium through the Wisconsin Partnership Program, and the UW-Madison Chancellor’s Office also provided funding as part of the Wisconsin Idea Project.

Arndt says the EMTs represent a diverse group in Wisconsin, including those who come from large municipal staffs to volunteer first-responders for rural communities. That diversity is well reflected in this year’s symposium, he says, noting that nearly 200 registrants are from the northern half of the state.

Arndt says the symposium is one important way that emergency responders can get recertified annually in Wisconsin by meeting their requirement for 24 hours of training. There are about 16,000 emergency staff in Wisconsin, ranging from ambulance staff, paramedics, first responders and med flight staff.

This year, symposium organizers plan to record all of the sessions and make them available later this summer, via streaming video, on the medical school’s Web site. Organizers are also creating a Web portal that will provide "a learning community of practicing EMTs" to share ideas and concerns, he says.

This year’s symposium will include:

• "The ABCs of ATVs," by Jill O’Connor, a flight nurse and nurse clinician for Med Flight at UW Hospitals and Clinics, about the growing number of ATV-related injuries and the difficulties posed in rescue;
• "EMS Jeopardy," where registrants will use an electronic audience response system to test their knowledge of material covered by the symposium; and
• "EMS Olympics Competition," where registrants get the chance to test their knowledge and skills in a controlled emergency simulation.