A statewide education effort that began Monday in Billings aims to teach rural Montana medical providers to use a color-coded system for evaluating and treating children in emergencies.
The Broselow method simplifies complex dosing calculations for medicines and standardizes trauma care for pediatric patients, who can be among the most worrisome patients for nurses and doctors.
"Our end goal is they have a higher comfort level in caring for pediatric patients by having the appropriate tools to do it with," said LaWanna Moran, a pediatric nurse at St. Vincent Healthcare who will help teach Broselow in Eastern Montana and northern Wyoming. "So many people are so uncomfortable taking care of pediatric patients. We want to increase their comfort level."
Staffers at rural hospitals do not have time to call a larger medical center for help when a child is gravely ill or injured, Moran said. They must know how to quickly provide the care themselves. But pediatric emergencies can be rare events in small communities, said Dr. James Broselow, who developed the color-coded evaluation method and was in Billings on Monday.
"A small facility may only have to stabilize one bad child a year," said Broselow, who teaches emergency medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine.
Broselow's evaluation tool categorizes pediatric patients based on their height. Each category has a color, which corresponds to a raft of treatment information including drug dosages.
Some of the information is printed directly on the measuring tool, called a Broselow Tape, and some is in accompanying reference manuals. Eventually, the information will be available online.
About 130 medical providers gathered Monday at St. Vincent Healthcare to learn about the Broselow method, which is commonly used in large medical centers. The course was also broadcast via video link to seven sites across the state.
In the coming weeks, Moran and Stacy Handley, a pediatric nurse practitioner at the hospital, will take the training to five rural sites.
The training includes hands-on exercises with two computerized mannequins that can be programmed to exhibit a range of symptoms.
As trainees use Broselow's tools to address the symptoms, their actions are recorded by the computer system and can be deconstructed after the fact.
"It's as real as you can possibly make it without it being too real," Handley said.
Contact Diane Cochran at dcochran@billingsgazette.com or 657-1287.
