The Training on Medical Corpsmen for Tracheal Intubation and Tracheotomy Using SimMan Simulation and Living Goats

Abstract

Objective: To improve skills of tracheal intubation and tracheotomy on medical corpsmen using SimMan simulation and experiments on living goats. Methods: A total of 90 medical corpsmen from one certain group army were trained for the skills of tracheal intubation and tracheotomy using medical simulator and experiments on living goats. Both theoretical tests and practical examinations were performed on all medics to evaluate the efficacy of such training program. Results: Only 25.6% and 15.6% of all medics have previously received trainings related to tracheal intubation and tracheotomy, respectively. Before training, these medics got an average score of 35.3 marks in the theoretical test, and the successful rate of tracheal intubation was only 18.9%. Their performances in both tests, however, increased to 85.2% and 81.1% respectively after training. All these differences were of statistical significance compared to those before training (p<0.01). In a further practical test related to tracheotomy, 14 randomly selected medical corpsmen reached a 71.4% successful rate after training compared to only 14.3% before training (p<0.01). Conclusion:Training modules combined both simulator and goat experiments are effective in improving tracheal intubation techniques on medics especially those from primary units.