Rural Health Summit medical students keeping calm after the ‘quake’

That’s just what more than 180 delegates at the Australian Medical Students’ Association’s Rural Health Summit did on Saturday afternoon, when an ‘earthquake’ struck in QEII Square.

Delegates had to think quickly and treat a range of injuries as volunteers found themselves trapped in cars or under verandahs, requiring various levels of assistance.

With so many students in one place, co-convener Dayna Duncan said it was a rare opportunity to conduct a unique exercise.

“Today is the first day of the Rural Health Summit, we’ve brought about 180 medical students from around Australia to Albury,” she said.

“We have a scenario where an earthquake has hit Albury and there are a number of casualties, and our delegates are first responders who have to treat them at the scene due to an overloaded hospital system.

“It really is invaluable, they say quite often in medicine that you work and practice like you’re going to be working when the real thing happens.

“Having these kind of situations helps students know what it’s really like in a high stress, high pressure situation and helps them perform properly when they’re actually on the job.”

St John’s Ambulance, SES and VRA volunteers were on hand to help the students where appropriate, as well as a healthy cast of victims drawn from the public, who donned realistic looking makeup to simulate some of the injuries.

Ms Duncan said the association was grateful for the help they had received from volunteers.

“We have a range of skill levels and a range of areas, we have a resuscitation, a pneumothorax and we have some crush injuries,” she said.

“We also have an entrapment scenario where there are some patients with impalements and a baby with a crush injury, and we have a motor vehicle accident.

“It’s been an enormous effort and we’ve been very fortunate to have so many volunteers donating their time.

“Rural health is an area where it’s particularly important to have these kids of events to come together.

“Summits like this allow people to come together and share their knowledge.”