New ambulance simulator benefiting paramedic students in Sask.

Primary Care Paramedic students and Advanced Care Paramedic students at Saskatchewan Polytechnic are now able to use brand-new ambulance simulators.

The school installed the machines in December last year and students can now use them.

There are two simulators but four different machines. Two are driving simulators equipped with three monitors, a steering wheel, pedals and other gadgets inside the ambulance like lights and siren gauges.

The other two machines are simulators of the back of an ambulance with a mannequin and medical supplies.

Its purpose is to simulate what it’s like in the back of an ambulance while it’s driving.

The ambulance simulator shakes and rattles like a real ambulance would driving down a road. (Will Mandzuk/650CKOM)

Matt McGurk, Academic Chair for the Paramedic Program, said this helps students mimic real life situations.

“(It prepares students) to properly assess patients and to properly treat patients in the back of a confined ambulance,” McGurk said. 

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• Enrolment numbers rising at Sask. Polytechnic
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Before acquiring these machines, training used to take place in an actual ambulance but they were limited to driving in a parking lot.

“In reality we know that our emergency responses (are) dealing with real traffic,” he said. “You’re dealing with pedestrians, you’re dealing with weather.”

Weather was another big impact that students were limited to, but with these simulators they can drive through conditions like snow, fog, rain, high winds or bright sunlight.

Students at @SaskPolytech in Saskatoon and Regina are now able to use a brand new ambulance simulator, these are the only ones in the province. @CKOMNews #YXE pic.twitter.com/UzAcfrMDbd

— Will Mandzuk (@WMandzuk) November 28, 2024

McGurk said simulators provide students with more thorough training.

“People learn from their mistakes,” he said.

“You can learn that kind of stuff with the driving simulators, people are going to get comfortable … and they’re going to start pushing those limits and they’re going to feel what it’s like to actually skid out but (they’ll) do it in a controlled environment.”

Sask. Polytechnic was able to purchase the machines through capital funding and in total with renovations it cost the school around $1.5 million.

The Saskatoon and Regina campuses have both simulators ready to go for students.

It’s not common that schools house these simulators, making this a monumental step forward.

“This is the first in Saskatchewan,” McGurk  said. “I want to say there are less than six in Canada (but) that number has been changing.” 

Primary Care Paramedic student Janie Kennedy previously worked as an Emergency Medical Responder which means she has experienced what it is like to be in an ambulance.

“It (the simulator) is very accurate … especially knowing our Saskatchewan roads are very rough,” Kennedy said. “Our weather is very unpredictable, in this instance you get to feel how the box moves especially because you are sitting on the axle.” 

Kennedy said the movement feature on the back of the ambulance simulator was the feature she was most looking forward to.

“Loading a person in and then having the ambulance sit is a little different than actually doing CPR in a moving vehicle,” she said. 

Brady Gaucher, a Primary Care Paramedic student, said she was surprised by how much the back of the ambulance moves around in the simulator.

“If something goes wrong out there and you start swinging around I wasn’t expecting the magnitude it could be shown as,” Gaucher said.

She said knowing that the simulation is accurate to what it’s like being in an actual ambulance is very reassuring. 

Read More:

• Saskatchewan dealing with lack of ambulance care: NDP
• Enrolment numbers rising at Sask. Polytechnic
• Saskatchewan Polytechnic adding training seats for medical technologists