Katelyn Bello | Staff Writer | katbello@hotmail.com
UVU alum Josh Told has been accepted to present a research project that he and two others recently published in a peer-reviewed journal at an Osteopathic Medical Conference in Ohio.
Told, along with Zachary Lyman and Dr. Rodger Broome, assistant professor in the Department of Emergency services, published Mind-Body Integrative Training: Firefighter Personal Protective Equipment last November.
The basis of the research project was that when working in a high-stress environment, such as firefighting, the mind is working faster than the body, and this can cause a lot of mistakes, for example a firefighter putting on gear incorrectly. In the new method that Told and his colleagues introduced the training starts out slow, so that the body builds muscle memory, and the speed slowly increases so that eventually it is done without thinking about it.
In comparing the group that used the new method of training, and the group that used the traditional method of firefighting training, both groups performed in the desired time range, however the group that had used the new method out-performed the traditional group in skill mastery.
“The firefighters were more proficient with the new method,” Told said.
Told is currently attending an Osteopathic Medical School, where he is studying how the mind and body work together to facilitate healing.
“The research became pertinent to medical school, because it dealt with how the mind and body operate working together,” Told said.
Told is currently working towards becoming a physician and hopes to continue working with fire-fighting and medicine.
