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This version of NSU News has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of NSU News, visit news.nova.edu.
This version of SharkBytes has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of SharkBytes, visit sharkbytes.nova.edu.
NSU Medical Training in Iraq Leads to the Establishment of Training Center in Middle East
Last year, 12 Iraqi physicians learned how to administer advanced CPR and other life-saving skills on children thanks to cutting-edge technology at Nova Southeastern University.
The university, in partnership with health care providers from UCLA and the International Medical Corp (IMC), conducted a three-day, live broadcast training from NSU’s main campus. Because doctors can be targets in a war zone, it was televised in real time to a dozen Iraqi pediatricians, surgeons, anesthesiologists and emergency medicine physicians at an undisclosed location in the Iraqi capital. The training provided the Iraqi doctors with the first American Heart Association (AHA) certified Pediatric Advance Life Support Course (PALS) using video technology. As the training was televised live in Iraqi, two IMC and UCLA physicians were in the same room with their Iraqi counterparts to demonstrate the skills training hands-on. Kevin Nugent, REMT-P, director of Emergency Medical Services education and training at NSU’s medical school, the College of Osteopathic Medicine; and Deborah Mulligan, M.D., director of NSU’s Institute for Child Health Policy, coordinated the training.
“There are thousands of Iraqi children suffering from cardiac arrests and respiratory problems who need physicians with the skills to treat them,” said Nugent. After passing the course, the Iraqi civilian physicians were immediately provided a PALS certification card issued by the AHA Approved Training Center at NSU.
Mulligan said the training of doctors in PALS Iraq Course is defining new ways by which the AHA and American Academy of Pediatrics can offer emergency care training to thousands of health care professionals in hard-to-reach communities such as in the rural U.S. and Afghanistan. “Each year, millions of men, women, and children are impacted by war, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and other disasters. In these desperate circumstances, quick response is often the difference between life and death,” said Mulligan.
As a result of the training, UCLA was able to establish an AHA-approved Emergency Medical Services training center in Baghdad. Furthermore, Mulligan, Nugent and other trainers were able to publish an article about their experiences titled Using Tele-Education to Train Civilian Physicians in an Area of Active Conflict: Certifying Iraqi Physicians in Pediatric Advanced Life Support from the United States in The Journal of Pediatrics. The other authors were Ross I. Donaldson, M.D., M.P.H., CTropMed, FACEP; Maricar Cabral, R.N., CCN; Eli R. Saleeby; Waleed Ansari, M.D., D.A.; Salah Tajer, M.D.; and Marianne Gausche-Hill, M.D., FACEP, FAAP.