Texas Tech Health El Paso offers Global Impact Training in Bulgaria
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) - Two Texas Tech Health El Paso educators are fulfilling the medical school's global impact mission by introducing a simulation program in Bulgaria.
Associate Professor Radosveta Wells and Brian Wilson, the Director of Simulation Education, took their expertise to the University of Plovidv in Bulgaria.
"We taught ACLS for the first time in Bulgaria and we got permission from the American Heart Association," said Associate Professor Wells. "So this is well established, well-standardized course, that trains not only physicians but also paramedics and medical students and nurses."
The goal of the educational collaboration is to train paramedics in a country where emergency medicine lags behind current standards.
In certain hospitals in Bulgaria, physicians ride along in ambulances as they respond to emergency medical situations due to a shortage of trained staff in certain emergency specialties.
"If we create a network of well-educated and well-trained paramedics, we could potentially help with the shortage by releasing the physicians," said Wells.
The curriculum uses high-tech lifelike medical manikins that can mimic breathing, sweating, and heart palpitations to show students hands-on procedures.
They say this new training gives medical students a more real-life experience that prepares them for emergency responses and frees up physicians to stay in the emergency departments instead of having to ride in the ambulances.
