NORFOLK, Neb. – It would be tough to find a more fitting acronym than HEROES for the training that Northeast Community College nursing and other medical students completed last spring.
HEROES stands for Healthcare and Emergency Responder Organization Education through Simulation, and it covers a range of scenarios. Staff come in each year to help provide education and training for emergency preparedness.
Austin Brake of the HEROES program said it is offered to LPN (licensed practical nurse) and RN (registered nurse) students, along with paramedic and PTA (physical therapist assistant) students. The training was offered April 17-18.
The students were divided into groups and took part in five stations, with a large group activity each day consisting of a mass casualty incident.
Brake taught the “Stop the Bleed and Overdose Response” session, covering such things as how to recognize life threatening bleeding, critical skills of using direct pressure, how to pack a wound and using a tourniquet. He also covered procedures for opioid overdose, including using Narcan.
The HEROES program started in 2005 in Omaha and became mobile in 2006. Since then, it has traveled more than 80,000 miles conducting training in Nebraska. It has been offered at Northeast at least 10 years.
Stop the Bleed
Austin Brake of Omaha, who teaches the HEROES program, checks the tourniquets of nursing students during training at the College of Nursing last April. (Northeast Community College)
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