NAGS HEAD, N.C. — As visitors brought their fishing poles onto Jennette's Pier, upstairs nearly 100 first responders from agencies in North Carolina and Virginia were gathering for the fourth annual "EMS at the OBX" conference.
"It's an educational opportunity for EMS providers across the state of North Carolina, this year from Virginia as well, to be able to come and get about 14 hours of continuing education credit," said Walter Meads, EMS program coordinator at College of the Albemarle.
This year, for the first time, Dare County and COA were joined by representatives of East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine and ECU Health Medical Center. With it came the mobile healthcare simulation unit, that gives first responders hands on experience from real life events, that they may have never seen before.
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"It's such an amazing opportunity to be able to run through a scenario that you may see in real life, but in a safe space. So you have the opportunity to learn to really use your hands to practice the skills when it's not somebody's life that's on the line," said Erika Greene, pediatric trauma program manager at ECU Health Medical Center.
The conference is about more than just the hands on experience though, it's a time to network with fellow first responders.
"EMS is very much a team effort when we partner with other public safety partners on the scene, whether it's fire departments or law enforcement. Everybody is there for the benefit of the patient. It is not unusual to walk on the scene and you may not know anybody, but you quickly fall into being able to manage that team and work together collaboratively so that that patient benefits. It's no difference whether it's in the classroom, the simulation van, or on the the actual street doing that 911 care," said Jennie Collins, chief of Dare EMS and MedFlight.
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Collins also took the time to provide an update on Dare County EMS's efforts in western North Carolina. Two teams went on four-day deployments in the last week to help out in Rutherford County after Hurricane Helene. The crews are home now, but Dare County EMS remains on standby to deploy again if they are needed.
"The things that we end up seeing when you go into some of these areas, and unfortunately western Carolina, it is just a catastrophe for those folks. The devastation that's occurred, it totally and forever, will change some of the landscape out there. The things that you see, you think that you're prepared to see it, but once you see it in reality, it's always different," said Collins.
"We have experienced that here in the Outer Banks before with the many storms that we get, and have appreciated the help that comes in to assist us, and to be able to go back and do that and give that to somebody else, means a lot to us. We're giving some relief to those other agencies, because their call volume is very high right now, two or three times what they normally run. To give them a rest, to be able to let them get home and attend to the things that they need at home is so very important, and their continued mental health capacity to be able to absorb all that devastation day in and day out," Collins said.
With everything going on in western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene, organizers also felt having this gathering brought with it a sense of normalcy.
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"Our western North Carolina partners, all of our EMS agencies are sending people to providers to be able to help them, as well as hospitals, nursing homes. Everyone is going over to go help, but it continues with some normalcy that our providers can still get. Even though we have a disaster going on, on the other side of the state, we can still be able to provide some continuing education for those and provide some normalcy and sense of normalcy for them," said Meads.
Emergency organizations in Dare and Currituck County, along with agencies across the state, are stepping up to help as much as they can for the communities that have been devastated by the storm and stand ready to continue to help in any way they can.
