ATSU-KCOM instructor, students bringing Stop the Bleed to Missouri campus
Posted: December 19, 2019
An A.T. Still University (ATSU) instructor and two second-year ATSU-Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine (ATSU-KCOM) students are doing their part in northeast Missouri to empower people through the Stop the Bleed program.
Lisa Archer, RN, BSN, director of simulation & performance assessment, and second-year students Christianne Jafari and Shayan Memar attended Stop the Bleed training in October in Columbia, Missouri. In 2020, they plan to pass on their knowledge to ATSU students, faculty, and staff, and then beyond into the community.
“We want to take this to the world,” Archer said. “We’re so anxious to tell everyone and teach everyone.”
Stop the Bleed was created following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in 2012. The American College of Surgeons sent recommendations to the federal government on methods to increase the survival rate in cases of severe bleeding, and in 2015 the White House launched the nationwide campaign with a goal of training 200 million people.
In Kirksville, Missouri, Roy Danks, DO, assistant professor, ATSU-KCOM, encouraged students to take part in the program. Jafari and Memar learned of the training in nearby Columbia, and together with Archer, they took the hour course in the fall.
Archer is now a certified instructor. Jafari and Memar are certified Stop the Bleed providers and will become instructors upon graduation.
The Kirksville Osteopathic Alumni Association awarded the group a $5,671.40 grant to purchase training materials, including sets of arms and legs trainees will use to practice packing wounds and applying tourniquets. The University will also receive two Stop the Bleed kit stations that will be placed strategically on campus.
Jafari, president of the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians Student Chapter, and Memar, vice president of the Student Osteopathic Surgical Association, plan to begin student involvement through those organizations in January. Any medical students who receive the training would also become certified instructors upon their graduation.
Archer hopes to add the training to the hands-only CPR and AED courses offered monthly to ATSU faculty and staff. Courses are held from 4:00-5:00 p.m. on the first Monday of each month and can be attended with approval of a supervisor. Registration is limited to 10 participants for each session.
Beyond campus, the training would be offered to other local universities, schools, and organizations. Memar also noted its application to the agricultural communities, helping people in rural areas to act as first responders when immediate emergency assistance may not be available.