Medical teams that will treat wounded soldiers from Gaza battlefields are undergoing training not only in the field and in hospitals but also at the Center for Medical Simulation at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev (BGU) in Beersheba.
The center took the initiative to allow doctors, medical staff, and even volunteer doctors from abroad to be trained in a practical approach to the treatment of trauma victims. The training, essential for medical personnel preparing for emergency missions in accordance with the needs in the field, has received academic sponsorship from the emergency medicine at BGU’s Medical School for International Health (MSIH) which was opened in June of 2022.
The new, $23 million, four-story Medical Simulation Building includes a comprehensive, state-of-the-art simulation center and teaching space that will dramatically impact healthcare training, education, and research. BGU says the Rachel and Max Javit Medical Simulation and Classroom Building, which houses the Field Family Medical Simulation Center, is the only facility of its size in Israel that was built specifically for medical simulation education.
Simulation that closely reflects real-life situations
Simulation exercises are a critical focus of clinical research and complement and improve medical education. Simulation rooms include an operating room, an internal medicine ward, an ambulance simulator, rooms dedicated to emergency medicine, and a treatment room for multi-casualty events. Manikins, actors, and virtual reality will allow students to encounter life-like situations and practice procedures to develop their clinical skills. Along with advanced manikins, stations feature equipment that ranges from cardiac monitors to intubation kits and ventilation machines.
The simulation rooms closely reflect real-life medical scenarios, from mastering cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) techniques to life-saving procedures for trauma victims like such as stopping bleeding, airway management, and emergency surgery.
Menachem Blumenthal, the center’s director, said that since October 7, many medical teams from the army and civilian organizations, have been contacting us, requesting training in our simulation center. We try to include them all in the training. Teams train routinely. This time it's for real.”
“This effort represents BGU’s commitment to making a major contribution in these challenging times. Although many of our staff are on reserve duty, we stand united with the medical community in these difficult times,” said Dr. Oren Wacht, the academic director of the simulation center.
“This is a leap forward for professionalization of the senior therapists and medics and a high sense of competence,” added. radiologist Dr. Gal Ben-Ari, a specialist at the imaging institute at Soroka-University Medical Center in Beersheba who was recruited to take part. “We are full of appreciation for the team of the simulation center and especially for the instructor, Sahar Gavish, who is a paramedic and a graduate of the emergency medicine department and an instructor in the department