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HC Halgren CreationsFire-Service Woodwork
For students and instructors

Free EMS Training Tools

Tools I built for teaching paramedic and EMT students, after thirty years on the job. Use them in class, at the station, or on your own. They cost nothing.

The pediatric paper dose wheel: weights in pounds around a colored rim, with rings of drug doses inside
Print and build

Paper dose wheels

The Dose Wheel also comes as a paper wheel you can print, cut out and pin together, like an old flight computer. Turn the top disc to the patient's weight and read the doses through the window.

The PDF has a pediatric wheel, an adult wheel and step-by-step assembly instructions. Print it at actual size on heavy cardstock. Click the picture or the button to download it.

Download the PDF
Want one for your system? These wheels are built from the Illinois Region 8 protocols. Email your SOPs to halgrencreations@gmail.com and I can have this wheel updated to represent your system.
The tools

Pick one and start

Each tool opens on its own page. Nothing to install, and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.

Scenario simulator · PALS

Peds Mega Code

An instructor-run pediatric mega code. The instructor drives the patient from a console while the crew works off a bedside monitor that only shows what they ask for.

  • Built-in pediatric scenarios with live ECG, SpO₂ and capnography
  • Vitals stay hidden until the students assess for them
  • Tracks interventions, timing and missed critical actions for the debrief

Best on a laptop or desktop with a second screen or projector for the student monitor.

Open the simulator How to use it, including the second-screen setup →
Device trainer · Monitor / Defib / Pacer

X Series Advanced Trainer

A working cardiac monitor/defibrillator built from the X Series Advanced operator's guide: the real screen layout, quick-access keys, Defib control panel and energy ladder, Pacer Settings window, AED prompts, CPR dashboard, alarms and 12-lead analysis pages. Students run the device; an instructor console drives the patient underneath it.

  • Manual defib, Analyze, full AED mode with voice prompts and CPR interval, synchronized cardioversion and transcutaneous pacing with capture thresholds
  • Live ECG, SpO₂ and capnography; values stay blank until the cable is actually attached; Real CPR Help feedback during compressions
  • 13 preset scenarios, eight guided lessons that check themselves off, and a scored skills check

Best on a laptop with a second screen for the student monitor; open the instructor window on your own screen.

Open the monitor trainer
Rhythm quiz · real patient strips

ECG Rhythm Lab

Name the rhythm on a six-second lead II strip, then see the strip marked up with the cardiologists' own beat labels. Over 1,000 strips cut from four published arrhythmia databases, so no two sessions repeat.

  • 41 rhythms: sinus, atrial, junctional, every AV block, the ventricular family, paced and artifact
  • Calipers, 3-second marks, and a guided six-step read graded step by step
  • Mastery tracking that drills your weak rhythms more often

Works on a phone; a laptop or tablet shows the strip at full size.

Open the rhythm lab
Lead placement · what each lead sees · real 12-leads

ECG 12-Lead Lab

Tap each electrode on an interactive torso to learn exactly where it goes, see which wall of the heart every lead is looking at, then read real patient 12-leads from a published cardiology database, from normal through acute STEMI, and quiz on them.

  • Placement in the right order, the angle-of-Louis method, and the errors that fake or hide an MI
  • Lead views on a heart map, the frontal and horizontal planes, arteries and reciprocal leads
  • 239 real 12-leads in 18 diagnoses with territory highlighting and measured ST levels

Works on a phone; a laptop or tablet shows the 12-lead at full size.

Open the 12-lead lab
Weight · dose · volume · syringes

Med Math Lab

The whole chain, in order: pounds to kilograms, the weight-based dose with its maximum, how many mL that is from the vial in your hand, and reading the line on the syringe. Built on the Region 8 SMO doses and the department's vial concentrations.

  • Head-math weight conversion, age-based estimates, and unit conversions with the decimal-point traps called out
  • Interactive 1, 3, 5, 10 and 20 mL syringes with real graduations: drag the plunger, read it, draw up a target
  • Unlimited randomized problems in seven categories, worked solutions, tenfold-error warnings, mastery tracking

Works on a phone; the syringes are easier to read on a tablet or laptop.

Open the med math lab
Case simulator · Illinois Region 8

SMO Academy

Work one patient at a time, from dispatch through treatment. Each case asks a string of decisions in order: which SMO applies, which drug and route, and the dose for that patient's weight.

  • 66 adult and pediatric cases: medical, cardiac, overdose, trauma and environmental
  • You type the dose yourself; it is not multiple choice
  • Rhythm strip, 12-lead and capnography drills

Works well on a phone. One student at a time.

Open the simulator
Dosing reference · Illinois Region 8

Dose Wheel

Turn the wheel to the patient's weight in pounds and read every weight-based dose, already converted to kilograms and to the volume you would draw up.

  • Adult and pediatric doses by route, with maximums applied
  • Warnings and contraindications listed under each drug
  • Search by drug name or by what you are treating

Works well on a phone. Built from the Region VIII Standing Medical Orders, version 2025.1.

Open the dose wheel
Classroom game · Trivia

Can You Hammer the Hog?

A quiz-show board for review days. Put the board on the big screen, and students join by scanning a code and buzz in from their own phones.

  • Five PALS boards, plus EMS boards built from the Region 8 SMOs
  • Printable answer key with the source for each question
  • A general trivia board for when the class needs a break

Needs one screen for the board and a phone for each player or team. No accounts.

Open the game
Self-study · One player

Hog Study

The trivia questions as a study board for one. Read the question, answer it in your head, then tap to see the answer and where it comes from.

  • The same PALS and EMS topics as the classroom game
  • Mark each question "Got it" or "Study again later"
  • No scores and no timer; your place is saved on your device

Works well on a phone.

Open the study board
Free, and staying that way

No charge. No sign-up. Ever.

Everything on this page is free. I will never charge for it, and I will never ask you to sign up for anything.

If your system runs on different protocols, send me your current SOPs and I will make them work inside these tools.

If any of this helps you and you want to buy my wife a coffee, I'd appreciate it.

Buy my wife a coffee
Venmo code for @John-Halgren. Scan it with your phone camera.
Problems and requests

Tell me what's wrong or what you need

Found a wrong dose, a broken button or a confusing question? Want a new scenario or a tool for your own system? Send it here and it comes straight to me.

Read this first

For training only

These are study and classroom aids. They are not medical direction, they are not approved by any EMS system, and they are not for use on a real patient. Protocols change and differ between systems: always check doses and treatments against your own current protocols and your instructor.

Found a mistake, or have an idea for another tool? Use the form above or email halgrencreations@gmail.com.