Trauma and Hypothermia in Antarctica: An Emergency Medicine Marine Simulation Scenario

Abstract

Simulation has been shown to improve both learner knowledge and patient outcomes. Many emergency medicine training programs incorporate simulation into their curricula to provide learners with experiences that are rare to encounter in practice, yet performance with a high degree of competence is critical. One rare encounter, which is depicted in the report, is the management of a trauma patient who was hypothermic after falling from an expedition vessel into the cold Southern Ocean. The unique scenario presented in this technical report incorporates CanMEDS learning objectives including the communicator, health advocate, and collaborator roles. Using medical simulation facilities, marine performance simulation facilities, and a video, this scenario provides teaching that is uncommon in traditional emergency medicine training. As such, it is valuable for trainees who intend to practice rural, remote, or expedition medicine, or provide coverage for ships and marine installations.

Challenges of expedition medicine in Antarctica

“…Using relay carriers with regular breaks for ‘hand‐overs’ along the way, we speedily rendered a heavy‐set volunteer with a feigned femoral fracture and agitated alcoholic intoxication several hundred metres to the shore landing site. A trauma simulation of a man overboard into the Southern Ocean provided emergency medicine trainees with exposure to a novel expedition emergency that required team competence and coordination.…”