Trauma Bleeding Training Empowers Steel Pier Employees

Written by Catherine Lewis Saenz

You never know what’s going to happen.

But you can always be prepared. For amusement parks that see thousands of visitors a day, such as Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey it’s important for food and beverage employees to be prepared for the unexpected. In-depth and interactive training like the one hosted by Dr. Anthony LaPorta, Director of the Military Medicine Program at RVU, can give employees at entertainment venues a new skill set for when the unexpected does occur.

Over the summer, Dr. LaPorta partnered with SafeGuard Medical for a presentation to Steel Pier’s employees about what trauma bleeding is and how it has evolved from basic CPR to emergency trauma. The thirty employees – including executives, security personnel, human resources, and operations – learned how to pack a wound and apply a tourniquet in an emergency situation. Task trainers and a manikin were used to teach Steel Pier employees how to effectively render aid in the field, including finding the source of the bleed and communicating with a patient.

The presentation also showcased how military medical training can benefit individuals who work in the entertainment and food and beverage industries and was followed by an interactive question and answer session.

Towards the end of the presentation, Dr. LaPorta surprised everyone with an immersive simulation that had Steel Pier employees jump to attention when a “patient” ran into the conference room with “life-threatening” injuries. The employees immediately used the skills they had learned during Dr. LaPorta’s lecture, specifically how to stop a major bleed, to prepare the scene for the first responders’ arrival.

Steel Pier employees work in an industry where the potential to see a wide array of injuries is vast and where they may be required to render aid and prepare a scene for first responders before they’ve arrived. The first few minutes after an injury has occurred – whether related to air flow or blood loss – are critical. The better prepared an employee is through knowledge or skill set, the better the outcome will be for the patient.

At the end of the day, Dr. LaPorta’s trauma bleeding simulation raised awareness of the importance of this type of training for frontline employees.