STHS brings ‘Stop the Bleed’ training to local classrooms

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Tuesday, April 20, 2021

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STHS brings ‘Stop the Bleed’ training to local classrooms

Mike Scott, mscott@stph.org

St. Tammany Health System’s Bethany Monistere, center in red shirt, recently visited Pontchartrain Elementary School in Covington to train faculty and staff members how to ‘Stop the Bleed’ in the event of a traumatic incident. The training was offered as part of a free community outreach program at the health system. (STHS photo)

From January to April this year, STHS’s Stop the Bleed team visited all 56 of the parish’s public schools, including Glynn H. Brock Elementary (pictured) as well as a handful of non-classroom support sites, to administer Stop the Bleed training. (STHS photo)

Two to five minutes. That’s all it takes for a bad situation to get worse.

More to the point, that’s all it takes for a person suffering a traumatic injury to bleed to death – or to “bleed out,” in medical parlance – without proper medical attention.

The good news is that learning what to do to stabilize such a patient until first responders arrive is easier than you probably think.

Making sure Northshore residents have that life-saving information is the focus of “Stop the Bleed,” a free community outreach program of St. Tammany Health System that has been offering one-hour courses to health system colleagues and community members since 2018.

Earlier this year, from January to April, the health system’s “Stop the Bleed” team visited all 56 public schools in St. Tammany Parish, as well as a handful of the school system’s non-classroom sites. There, they trained 302 faculty and staff members on how to pack a wound, apply a tourniquet and perform other life-saving techniques.

“The number one cause of a preventable death is hemorrhage, or bleeding out,” said St. Tammany Health System Trauma Services Manager Bethany Monistere, the driving force behind the health system’s Stop the Bleed program. “But it’s not that hard to put on a tourniquet or identify life-threatening bleeding. If you can arm citizens with this information to control bleeding, you can save someone’s life.”

While, of course, it is everyone’s hope that the skills acquired in this course will never need to be used, we are truly proud to support St. Tammany Health System’s efforts in providing this essential, life-saving training to the front-line personnel in our schools."

-- St. Tammany Hospital Foundation Executive Director Nicole Suhre

Some of those recently trained school system employees now qualify as “Stop the Bleed” trainers themselves, so they can share the knowledge with more teachers and staff. Additionally, the school system has committed to purchasing Stop the Bleed kits for each of its schools.

To-date, 872 people have received Stop the Bleed training through STHS since 2018.

St. Tammany Health System received its first Stop the Bleed training kit from the state. Since then, St. Tammany Hospital Foundation has provided funds to purchase a second kit, so multiple training courses can be held concurrently.

Additionally, the foundation – using money donated by the community – helped the health system purchase more than 50 Stop the Bleed kits, which are located at every defibrillator station throughout the health system. The foundation also provided kits for each of the school sites visited by the Stop the Bleed team.

“While, of course, it is everyone’s hope that the skills acquired in this course will never need to be used, we are truly proud to support St. Tammany Health System’s efforts in providing this essential, life-saving training to the front-line personnel in our schools,” foundation Executive Director Nicole Suhre said. "Donations from our community enable STHS to provide the courses and Stop the Bleed kits to our schools free of charge. Even a small gift can make a big impact in potentially saving a life.”

St. Tammany Health System offers free Stop the Bleed training to organizations and companies in its service district, which covers western St. Tammany Parish and parts of Washington Parish. If you would like to discuss arranging training for your group, email communityeducation@stph.org.

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