GP Farm Hazard Training – Practical Primary Management in the Bush

Dr Kiri Oates1

1Royal Flying Doctor Service, Dubbo, NSW

 

Objective – Design and conduct a practical training day for GP Registrars in a realistic environment focussing on farm hazards and emergency pre-hospital management.

Method – Study day conducted on a farm utilising simulation patients and manikins with co-ordinated stations covering multiple outback emergency scenarios. These included snake-bite, quad bike accident, gunshot wounds and accidental organophosphate poisoning. Location scouting and preparation to ensure safety and comfort for participants and faculty whilst attaining an authentic experience. PDF summaries were provided to encapsulate learning objectives and teaching points.

The faculty worked to present realistic scenarios from the rural environment and highlight likely management difficulties in treating these patients. This included emphasising multiple uses of the limited resources found in the average doctor’s bag, the stress impact of isolation and restricted evacuation options in the outback promoting GPs to think on their feet.
Results – A successful and well received training day with request for further future sessions which could also be tailored to other professionals such as first responders and retrieval clinicians.

To create the most informative, productive and fun day possible, significant preparation was required and in an oral presentation I would describe lessons learnt in how best to design such an ambitious training day. Discussions will include the utilisation and sourcing of manikins and volunteer patients, taking care of your participants and faculty, producing take-away content and how to manage inevitable hurdles when they appear.


Biography:

Dr Kiri Oates is an Emergency Medicine and Retrieval Registrar working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Dubbo, New South Wales. She trained in the UK and is experienced in Adult and Paediatric Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care and a member of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.
Kiri has an interest in Event and Expedition medicine which allows her to combine her personal passion for travelling with her training. This has included volunteering as medical support festivals and charity sporting events over the years such as working with ultra-marathon runners in extreme environments.