STONY RAPIDS — In northern Saskatchewan, where serious trauma can mean limited equipment, long transport times and life-or-death decisions made far from a major hospital, health-care workers from some of the province’s most remote communities spent two intensive days training with trauma specialists from Saskatoon.
The Resource Variable Trauma Team Development Course (RTTDC), formerly known as the Rural Trauma Team Development Course, was led by specialists from Royal University Hospital. The course's name was recently updated as part of a new edition to better reflect the diverse settings where it is delivered. Health-care staff from Stony Rapids, Fond du Lac, Black Lake and Uranium City gathered in Stony Rapids for the training. The program focused on preparing local health-care teams to manage serious trauma cases using the personnel, equipment and resources available in northern communities.
Fifteen to 17 health-care professionals based in Stony Rapids took part in the training, with additional participants travelling from nearby communities, including Fond du Lac. An 11-member team from Saskatoon — including trauma surgeons, STARS personnel, nurse navigators, a flight medic and a simulation specialist — travelled more than 1,000 kilometres north to deliver the course.
The training was supported by donors, including a $300,000 gift from Orano Canada, and featured an advanced simulation manikin capable of bleeding, crying and speaking, allowing participants to practise realistic emergency scenarios.
For Mark Lussier, a primary care paramedic who lives near Cut Knife and flies to Stony Rapids for two-week rotations, the course was unlike any other training he has experienced in more than two decades as a paramedic.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime course," Lussier told SaskToday.
The 11-member Saskatoon team included trauma surgeons, STARS personnel, nurse navigators, a flight medic and a simulation specialist, giving participants direct access to specialists they would typically only consult remotely during medical emergencies.
Lussier said the greatest benefit was the opportunity to build relationships with specialists they usually only speak to over the phone while arranging emergency patient transfers.
"The biggest gain was that you could really network with these people that you never really get to talk to," he said. "They could learn the challenges that we have up in the north."
He said the visiting specialists gained a firsthand understanding of the realities faced by northern health-care teams, including long transport times and limited diagnostic resources.
"They tailored the course to our needs," Lussier said. "It was really, really nice too that they came up so they could see the resources that we have."
Unlike larger urban hospitals, Stony Rapids has X-ray and laboratory services but does not have CT scanning. Patients requiring advanced imaging or specialized treatment often must be transported hundreds of kilometres south.
Lussier said the practical simulations focused on improving teamwork during time-critical emergencies.
"We deal with a lot of traumas up in Stony Rapids and area," he said. "Just even with the simulation, you know, you can get the worst of the worst cases in simulation and practise and practise and practise how to deal with them."
He said one of the most valuable exercises involved managing severe airway burns and learning to operate a new ventilator with guidance from respiratory therapy specialists.
The course also reinforced the importance of clearly defined roles during trauma responses.
"In trauma, time is of the essence," he said. "If we can get everything done in a timely manner … it benefits everybody."
Nurse practitioner Chantelle Paul, who has worked in the Athabasca Health Authority region for six years and travelled from Fond du Lac to attend the training, said the experience highlighted just how different northern medicine is from practising in larger centres.
"I honestly have never left," Paul said of working in the North. "I just realized that you're serving a population that otherwise wouldn't receive care, and that was very fulfilling for me."
Paul told SaskToday the greatest challenge facing northern health-care workers is limited access to resources.
While specialists in Saskatoon can quickly access CT scans, surgeons and numerous support staff, northern facilities must often rely on only the personnel and equipment immediately available.
"When people hear the words Stony Rapids Hospital, they hear hospital," she said. "It's really like an extension of … it is a hospital, but it has limited lab testing, it has limited imaging, and it has limited personnel."
Paul said the region regularly responds to ATV crashes, snowmobile collisions, outdoor accidents related to traditional land-based activities and injuries resulting from interpersonal violence.
"I think it would be comparable … to what you would consider a rural site," she said.
She said one of the greatest strengths of the course was that instructors travelled north rather than requiring participants to travel to Saskatoon.
"It was eye-opening for them to see the limited resources we have," Paul said.
Instead of practising scenarios in a fully equipped trauma centre, every exercise was completed using only the equipment available in Stony Rapids.
"We did all of the simulations with just the resources we have up north, and that's going to help us and our patients," she said. "We're going to be a well-oiled machine when it comes to that."
For Paul, the opportunity to practise procedures alongside trauma physicians was invaluable.
"As a practitioner, I was able to walk through a chest tube insertion a couple times with some of the trauma docs," she said. "Doing those simulations helps us prepare for real-life events."
Beyond the classroom, visiting specialists experienced northern Saskatchewan through guided tours and time on the land.
"They were astounded by the beauty," Paul said. "They were genuinely shocked."
The collaboration also helped strengthen relationships between northern providers and the specialists who support them during emergency patient transfers.
For participants like Lussier and Paul, those connections could ultimately improve care for patients facing life-threatening emergencies in some of Saskatchewan's most remote communities.
