Video helps docs prepare for medical emergency

Blog Author: Simon Moore, MD [3]

[4]
YouTube video helps doctors prepare for office emergencies.

When a group of amateur filmmakers posted a recruitment advertisement in a Vancouver Island coffee shop, they never expected a physician to ask for help.

I was in the final stages of completing my resident research project, designed as a resource to prepare physicians’ offices for medical emergencies.  The literature on this topic clearly indicates that though people often turn to a nearby doctor’s office when they need urgent medical help, many offices are not well prepared for these situations. 

My research question was simple: can a YouTube video help doctors prepare for these office emergencies?

After reviewing the published literature and provincial requirements for office emergency preparedness, I had completed a film script, which highlighted the recommended equipment and training.  At that point, I had everything ready to go, but I was missing one crucial piece of equipment: a video camera.

And that’s when I saw a poster for the Nanaimo Film Group.

I sent an e-mail to the group asking if they would be interested in loaning some equipment. Within an hour, film group member Aaron Colyn, a Vancouver Island University biology student, had replied to my request, and jumped at the opportunity for a collaborative effort.

“We love the cause, and we would be thrilled to help with the project,” Aaron told me. “There are no other YouTube videos on this topic for physicians, so it was really exciting to be contacted for this project.”

Aaron and his team brought their film, sound, and lighting equipment to a Nanaimo family medicine clinic, where several residents acted out emergency scenarios. From that footage, the film group produced an exceptionally high-quality educational video, which was published online February 14.

The video has been online for less than a week, and already, the feedback coming from across North America has been very encouraging. Doctors across the continent are finding the video to be a helpful resource for them, and also their office staff and nurses.

The video resource is still available online for office-based physicians of any specialty, and their office staff and nurses, as part of a not-for-profit research project. It can be accessed free of charge at www.OfficeEmergencies.ca [5].

Dr Simon Moore is a second-year UBC family medicine resident. He is based at the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.