Sunday Class

Best Practice Recommendations for Identifying Child Physical Abuse in the Field – This case-based presentation will focus on the validated Bruising Clinical Decision Rule, also referred to as TEN-4-FACES-P to assist medical personnel decision making on when to be concerned for inflicted injury when a child has a bruise, and what the appropriate next steps are.  This presentation will also define what a Sentinel Injury is in young children, why identifying sentinel injuries is so important, and what medical personnel should do when one is identified.

Monday Classes

DKA – Emphasize the physiological differences between adult and pediatric patients with DKA.

EMS Resiliency – EMS can be a short-lived career field if we let it.  EMS can be difficult physically, mentally, and for our health. This can be especially true when pediatrics are involved.  If EMS providers do not have the tools necessary to stay healthy both inside and outside, they will not be able to have longevity in this tough career field.  EMS can take a toll on both our bodies and minds.  This presentation will explain to caregivers why physiologically it is a difficult career path.  It will explain the concept of Resiliency and how Resiliency can elongate a career in EMS. It will give providers and leaders the tools necessary to keep themselves well long into their careers and will help them to raise the next generation of providers to begin their careers healthy and to stay that way for the duration.

Shock – Define shock, understanding the different types of shock, clinical tools to differentiate types of shock, treatment of shock and Pearls/Pitfalls of shock management.

Reducing the Pucker Factor: Ensuring Pediatric Readiness for High Stress Emergencies – Identify and analyze pediatric emergency statistics. Define the role of the Pediatric Emergency Care Coordinator. Understand family-centered care in pediatric emergencies. Assess and implement pediatric readiness standards. Apply QA / QI principles to pediatric care.

Solid Organ Injuries – Enhance Awareness of Solid Organ Injuries in Children, Improve Recognition of Solid Organ Injuries in Children, Understand Diagnostic Approaches for Solid Organ Injuries, Explore Management Strategies for Solid Organ Injuries.

Human Trafficking – Enhance awareness of human trafficking among pediatric healthcare workers, equip professionals with tools to identify and support trafficking victims and promote a multidisciplinary approach in addressing trafficking cases.

OB: Mom & Baby – This class provides a comprehensive overview of the obstetric delivery process, focusing on the stages of labor, delivery techniques, and essential care practices for both mother and baby post-delivery. Students will learn about the physiological changes during labor, various types of delivery complications, and the role of EMS in ensuring safe outcomes. Additionally, the course covers immediate postpartum care for both mother and infant, including monitoring vital signs, placenta delivery, newborn assessments, and addressing common complications. The course emphasizes holistic care, effective communication with patients, and the importance of emotional support during the critical post-delivery period.

Advocacy and Addressing Sexual Assault in Pediatric Care – Educate pediatric workers on the importance of advocacy, highlight the prevalence and impact of sexual assault in children, provide practical tools for identifying and responding to abuse.

Pediatric Medical Pearls and Jeopardy Jewels – Rapid review of pediatric medical emergencies including asthma, seizures, DKA, toxicology, animal bites, pain management/sedation, & more – Delivered via highly interactive group game show format.

Pediatric Ventilation – This interactive class will take you through different mechanisms of pediatric ventilation including CPAP through mechanical ventilation. It will be divided between lecture time and practice scenarios so everyone will become more comfortable with the different mechanisms of pediatric ventilation. The lecture content will provide the basis of knowledge, while the scenarios will give the students a chance to apply that knowledge during class. Class participation is very important as it will increase everyone’s understanding of this complex topic.

Initial Management of the Burned Patient – Describe general concepts about burns, identify special types of burns, describe routine approach to burn patients, explain ideal first responder management.

Tiny Trauma Tales – Rapid review of pediatric traumatic emergencies airway management, chest/abdominal trauma, burns, & more – Delivered via highly interactive group game show format.

Neonatal Resuscitation – Simulation designed to cover high risk, low frequency neonatal delivery, assessment, and resuscitation in prehospital space not in immediate proximity to an emergency department.

Developing a Functional Bundle of Care for Pediatric Respiratory Distress for EMS Providers – Treatment for common conditions by EMS providers should be delivered consistently, reliably and in a structured fashion to improve patient outcomes. This is especially important for EMS when attending to pediatric patients given infrequent encounters with this population. Identifying the right interventions and structuring them into your system to achieve your agencies objectives, is often an intimidating, challenging and a thankless labor of love. This presentation will look at current evidence-based practices and standards of care for pediatric patients with respiratory distress and look at strategies to implement these. This presentation will also look at strategies for ensuring consistent delivery of these intervention bundles, ways to measure care delivery and tactics for educating providers before, during and after implementation.

RSI –

Pediatric ITLS – Pediatric-3rd-EditionITLS Pediatric focuses on the special needs of young trauma patients. In 8 hours, you will learn the principles of proper assessment, management, critical interventions, patient packaging, and rapid transport. You also will practice proven techniques for communicating with young patients and their parents. The practical skills you gain will enable you to feel confident and competent when you care for a critically injured child.

Tuesday Classes

Tiny Patients, Big Challenges: A Guide to Pediatric Mass Casualty Response – Understand the definition and characteristics of pediatric mass casualty incidents. Identify common causes, scenarios, and unique challenges in pediatric mass casualty incidents. Describe the key components of pre-incident preparation, including response planning, personnel training, communication protocols, and resource availability. Explain the principles of pediatric triage, including triage categories and prioritization, and demonstrate pediatric triage techniques. Discuss pediatric-specific medical considerations, age-appropriate interventions, psychological support, and coordination and communication strategies during pediatric mass casualty incidents.

Button Battery Ingestion – Review of button batteries and why they pose harm to the pediatric patient.

Respiratory Rescue: Tips & Tricks to Support Pediatric Breathing Without Intubation – Caring for pediatric patients with respiratory distress presents unique challenges for EMS and critical care providers. These young patients can deteriorate rapidly and recover slowly, making early intervention crucial. Delayed hospital visits, resource limitations, and inadequate training can further complicate stabilization efforts. This course will cover common pediatric respiratory illnesses, evidence-based treatment strategies and essential airway management techniques.

The Critically Ill Neonate – The Critically Ill Neonate lecture is a review and provides a mental framework for approach to the neonatal patient, and reviews some of the unique anatomy and physiology inherent in premature and neonatal patients. It also utilizes various images and unique presentations of patients that I’ve come across over the last 8 years.

Practical Prehospital Pediatrics – Practical Prehospital Pediatrics is a review of PALS/Primer for continued education and discusses the most common pediatric EMS calls – including comprehensive review of the Pediatric Assessment Triangle, case reviews, and integrates pharmacotherapy review and application to pediatric patients.

Pediatric Sports Injuries: Evidence-Based Approaches for Children Under 15 – This session will provide participants with the tools to approach pediatric sports injuries with confidence, ensuring effective management and prevention for young athletes, while integrating national safety guidelines for activity in high heat and proper hydration.

Carter Kits Sensory Bags: Autism Spectrum Disorder – Define Autism Spectrum Disorder. Know common medical symptoms associated with ASD, recognize common communication deficits and distinguish between hypo and hyper sensitivity.

EMS Care and Destination Decisions for Rural High Risk Perinatal Patients – Review of high-risk pregnancies, field delivery and immediate post-partum care of mother and newborn and interfacility transport of newborns.

Death of a Child in the Field – The student will recall some of the most common causes of pediatric death, as well as preventable strategies for these common causes; will demonstrate the use of tangible items and ways to help families experiencing the death of a child, including preparing the child for the viewing by the  family, will explain methods of therapeutic communication when discussing loss with the family, will navigate through case studies to aid in the enforcement of their gained knowledge of caring for loss families, will appreciate and corroborate the effects of loss on healthcare professionals, will identify community resources for families of loss and for their own mental well-being.  

Measuring your Pediatric Patient Care: Creating and Expanding your Pediatric Quality Improvement Program – This presentation looks at current best practice in gathering current patient care data, developing useful and attainable metrics and developing plans to improve care in the prehospital setting, ultimately improving patient outcomes. This presentation will look at the real tools available to EMS providers, supervisors and managers to identify, measure, benchmark and analyze patient care data and how to develop plans to achieve established objectives. 

Modern Day Slavery: Human Trafficking Awareness and Response for First Responders – Human trafficking is a worldwide problem and one that affects every state and territory in the United States. Commercial sex trafficking and labor trafficking are the two most common types of trafficking. Victims being trafficked in either type are exploited and are kept under submission by the perpetrator through force, fraud, or coercion. Men, women, and children can all be victims of this crime. Human trafficking victims come from all backgrounds, with the most vulnerable populations victimized most often. Human trafficking is different from smuggling operations in that victims do not have to travel or cross state or national borders.

EMS is a profession with a unique opportunity to identify human trafficking. EMS practitioners educated in various aspects of human trafficking including types, observational signs, and knowledge of trauma informed care, may be able to recognize human trafficking situations, interact with the victims, and potentially improve outcomes. Understanding how victims of human trafficking enter the EMS system would help to provide awareness of situations that may be related to this issue, including personal threats to and protection of the safety and confidentiality of the victims.

Sexual Abuse – The Centers for Disease Control cites that at least 1:4 girls and 1:20 boys in the United States experience child sexual abuse.  Child sexual abuse is a serious adverse childhood experience that can impact a child’s long-term health and well-being.  While multidisciplinary investigative teams are actively working to mitigate and address child sexual abuse, this epidemic requires the awareness of all responders to public safety.  This presentation will address the medical responder’s role in recognizing, treating, and responding to child sexual abuse. 

Drowning – Of preventable death in children, making rapid, informed EMS response critical. This course will cover the unique challenges of pediatric drowning incidents, including pathophysiology, scene dynamics, and age-specific resuscitation considerations. In addition to clinical care, the session will address the emotional impact these calls can have on providers and offer strategies to manage stress following high-acuity pediatric cases. Attendees will leave with a stronger understanding of prevention efforts, improved confidence in field response, and tools to support mental wellness after the call is over.

Provider Mental Health Awareness – Pediatric emergencies often leave a lasting emotional impact on EMS professionals. The stress of treating critically ill or injured children, navigating family dynamics, and facing potential loss can take a significant toll on mental well-being. This class will explore the psychological challenges unique to pediatric calls and how they affect EMS providers both on and off duty. Participants will learn practical coping and processing strategies, gain insight into cumulative stress and compassion fatigue, and leave better equipped to care for themselves and their peers after difficult pediatric incidents. This session is designed to promote resilience, reduce stigma, and support long-term mental health in the EMS profession.

Whole Blood Administration-Annual Education – This course is for providers who have already attended the initial Prehospital Blood Administration for Ground EMS course. This course is the WVOEMS approved annual education that is required to maintain the blood administration authorization. The course will review general blood transfusion education, blood administration protocols, appropriate transfusion documentation, and basic knowledge of transfusion equipment.

Wednesday Classes

Radio Etiquette – 

Pediatric Skills – An interactive discussion on airway management, shock management and hands on skills.

Moulage – Why it is necessary for realistic moulage makeup in clinical training for promoting student engagement and immersion? How to make different wounds 2D and 3D. Learn the tools and makeup needed, and how to use them properly. Have a mockup addressing how you would care for a patient with a real wound like what you, or someone else, made. 

Whole Blood Administration-Initial Course – Prehospital blood administration has recently been added to WVOEMS protocol. This course will cover general blood transfusion education, blood administration protocols, appropriate transfusion documentation, and basic knowledge of transfusion equipment. If your agency is carrying blood, or planning to intercept with agencies who are carrying blood, this course is required by WVOEMS for AEMTs or higher in order to be involved in prehospital blood administration. Providers who wish to become certified to administer blood products in the 911 setting must score a 90% or higher on the WVOEMS proctored exam. While this is an ALS skill, EMS providers of all levels are welcome to attend.

Simulation Truck Exercise – Participants will experience real-life scenarios using high fidelity manikins to further enhance hands on skills while in a controlled environment.