Lincoln Academy anatomy and physiology students are learning how to splint a broken leg with a life preserver and “unpretzel” a skiing accident victim as part of an unusual anatomy and physiology class.

Part college-bound anatomy and physiology and part Wilderness Advanced First Aid, the class, taught by Lincoln Academy Science Instructor Maya Crosby and LincolnHealth Emergency Department Nurse Eric Duffy, RN, may be one of the first of its kind in Maine public schools.

The idea behind the collaboration is to take a standard science course required for any student entering the medical field and make it more hands-on, so students can see the practical application of the information they are learning. It got its start following a series of conversations between Crosby and Duffy over the summer.

“It is an experiment but we are through our first trimester and it has gone really well,” said Duffy. “What (the students) are realizing is that it is not rocket science, it is critical thinking. You have to have a base of knowledge but the rest is how you apply it,” said Duffy, a Wilderness and Maine Emergency Medical Technician and lead instructor for Wilderness Medical Associates since 2000.

After students learn about skin during the anatomy and physiology part of the course, Duffy might teach part of the advanced first aid course that focuses on wound management or how to remove an object that has impaled a patient.

An anatomy lesson on the skeletal system might be followed by a first aid lesson on how to splint and stabilize a broken bone with whatever materials are available.

“One of the exercises involved taking students around campus and putting them in holes and sticking them under benches,” said Duffy.

The challenge for students is to put themselves in the place of a ski patrol member or wilderness medical responder working with an injured person on the side of a mountain.

“The premise of wildnerness medicine is that definitive care is at least a few hours away if not longer, which forces practitioners to think critically about the care they are providing and make risk/benefit decisions,” said Duffy.

It is a lesson that translates well into other endeavors where academic theory and what works in practice can be very different. And at the same time, students are learning very real skills that could help them land a job or save a life.

Duffy was able to get special permission from Wilderness Medical Associates, the Maine-based company that developed the Wilderness Advanced First Aid curriculum, to teach the course to high school juniors and seniors. Normally the age cut-off is 18 years old.

LincolnHealth donated first aid kits to lower the cost of the program.

The bottom line is that students are able to become certified in what is normally a four-day course for about a third of the normal cost. Students aren’t required, however, to become certified in the four-day wilderness first aid course to pass Anatomy and Physiology.

One of the most important aspects of the course is not so much educational as aspirational, said Duffy. By learning how to apply medical knowledge, students who weren’t previously considering careers in medicine, are now able to see themselves in the medical field.

“When they are given skills like that it is very empowering for them,” said Duffy.