Combat Casualty Triage
a Virtual Conversations® education simulation

This is a role-playing simulation where the user practices making critical triage decisions concerning five critically wounded soldiers in a life-or-death battlefield situation.

In this fast-paced Virtual Conversations® simulation program, five soldiers are injured in an explosion. The user is on the scene and must make triage and medevac decisions for the casualties, whose injuries include a massive head trauma, a "sucking" chest wound, and a traumatic leg amputation. The voice-controlled interactive program allows the user to talk directly to each soldier about his or her injury. Vital signs and other physical findings can be obtained through verbal commands. The user can request guidance, in the form of expert commentary, for any soldier at any time. Meanwhile, the clock ticks and the tension mounts.

The chaotic nature of a multiple casualty event is realistically portrayed in this dynamic simulation: Each soldier's condition can get worse as time passes, and the user feels the pressure from simultaneous, urgent calls for help. In response the user must provide treatment and continuously make triage decisions. A soldier's survival may  depend on the user's decisions and interventions.

The interactive session ends with the arrival of the evacuation vehicle. At this point, the user is instructed to assign the final medevac priorities and selects evacuees based on the number of spaces—randomly generated for each session—available in the vehicle.

Feedback is provided at the conclusion of each session. The user’s triage and evacuation decisions for each casualty are compared in retrospect with those of an expert; the outcome for each casualty is described; and percentage scores, based on the number of correct decisions, are provided. Because the decisions made during the simulation influence each casualty’s outcome, users can repeat the simulation and strive to improve their performance. They will get faster and better at making these decisions.

By playing the role of combat lifesaver in this sophisticated simulation, students will learn both the fundamentals and the subtle aspects of a battlefield triage situation. They will find out, firsthand, what it is like to be responsible for triage decisions, and, by practicing over and over with this complicated triage situation, they will learn to make the right decisions.

The development of this program was supported and partially funded by DARPA of the Department of Defense. The triage expert consultant was Col. Craig Llewellyn, M.D. of the Uniform Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD.