Second-year medical students are gathering in San Diego this week to participate in a trauma training — at a movie studio.
The Kearny Mesa movie studio is the site of the first-ever Intensive Surgical Skills Course where 25 students are performing "surgeries" with the help of real-life firefighters, paramedics and police officers.
"Medical students commonly state that they do not truly understand or recognize textbook description of a disease or syndrome until they experience the clinically applicable version of it," said Kit Lavell, the executive vice president of the movie studio Strategic Operations, which has provided training to service members and police officers.
"The more you do this, the better you're going to react — you will not lose when you're startled."
The training, conducted by Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine and Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, includes guiding the students from point of injury to the emergency room.
More than 190,000 Americans die from traumatic injuries each year. This results in $585 billion in health care costs, according to the National Trauma Institute.
