Paramedicine students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) will have the opportunity to demonstrate their skills in assessing and managing trauma patients during a practical exercise involving the State Emergency Service (SES) in Bathurst on Friday 29 September.The exercise, which runs from 11am to 1pm outside building 1455 on Ordnance Road, involves extricating several patients from a car following a simulated road traffic accident."This extrication exercise forms part of the simulated learning activities for first year paramedic students in fundamental subject in clinical practice," said CSU lecturer Ms Clare Sutton."This exercise provides an invaluable opportunity for the students to experience working alongside other emergency service operators as part of an interagency team."During the exercise, the students have to identify potential hazards on scene before assessing each of the casualties to determine which patients are a priority and then formulate an extraction plan based on those priorities.This information is conveyed to the SES Rescue team who will use various rescue techniques to extricate each of the patients according to individual clinical needs as identified by the student paramedics. "The exercise will give the students the opportunity to practice their skills of assessment and management when presented with multi-trauma casualties," Ms Sutton said."These will be vitally important skills for the students to master in preparation for their future role as a front line paramedic given the requirement to work collaboratively with colleagues from other emergency services in order to achieve the best outcome for the patient."We are very fortunate, in the paramedic team to have such a close working relationship with the local SES unit as this provides many fantastic opportunities for our students to experience working as part of an interagency team in high fidelity simulations."It's always a very popular day with the students as they all get a chance to experience some of the challenges involved with these type of incidents from both the paramedics' and patients' perspectives."The Bachelor of Paramedicine is available through the School of Biomedical Sciences at CSU in Bathurst and Port Macquarie and CSU online.