Throughout the country, educators are training undergraduate nursing students in emergency preparedness. Locally, a partnership of nursing educators teaches their students competencies as first responders in various disaster scenarios.
The IU School of Nursing at IUPUC, Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus and Ivy Tech Community College in Columbus work collaboratively with nursing students. Within each school, the student learning experience now includes realistic drills and active learning approaches to disaster response.
Deborah Judge is an IUPUC assistant professor, and Shannon Love is director of the IUPUC Simulation Lab and a clinical assistant professor. Danielle Robinson is the current department chair of nursing at Ivy Tech. Judge, Love, and Robinson realize that not only are the students learning essential communication skills; the joint disaster simulation projects have a positive impact from a societal perspective.
“Disaster simulations are structured activities designed to represent a scenario of an actual catastrophe. The simulation helps students develop the needed knowledge, skills, and attitude while providing students an opportunity to analyze and respond to realistic situations,” said Judge.
Beginning in 2014 there have been a growing number of joint ventures with disaster simulations held on both campuses. However, the team wanted to expand the student experience by conducting a tornado disaster simulation at Camp Atterbury. “We extended our time to include Army paramedics, which provided an additional discipline for students and an awesome team collaboration,” shared Judge.
The outcome of the Camp Atterbury experience led to Danielle, Debbie, Janet Todd who is the Dean of the nursing program at Ivy Tech, and Marsha Hughes-Gay who is a former clinical assistant professor at IUPUC creating a publication and offering a presentation at an international conference in Atlanta.
The most recent disaster simulation was a joint venture of the nursing programs from both campuses, held at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center. The scenario offered to the student nurses was a tornado devastated a trailer park and there were casualties and people who sustained injuries at many levels.
Before responding to the disaster site, time was dedicated to moulage victims. Moulage (Mock Disaster Makeup) is the process of applying make-up and blood bags to simulate various injuries to victims in a disaster simulation.
The nursing students visited a skills-station conducted by the Nursing Resident Program at Schneck Medical Center. “The goal of this program is in developing confidence, competence, communication skills, and leadership capabilities in student nurses,” said Billie Edwards, Nurse Educator, and Nurse Residency Program Coordinator. The nurse residence demonstrated and allowed students to test different methods of treatment on tabletop practice models at the various stations including catheters, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), intravenous therapy (IV), applying emergency tourniquets, and decompression.
From that point, the students moved to the disaster simulation area. Newer students were assigned as the 35 victims, while the balance of student nurses (comprised of senior students in their perspective programs) triaged the affected area by locating the injured and the casualties of the disaster. The primary objective of triage is an assessment only of the victims of a disaster situation. However, two exceptions to the triage rule include treatment of victims with blocked airways or the application of tourniquets when excessive bleeding threatens life.
The triage method utilized in the disaster event included each victim carrying a card that described their type injury. The nursing students had to locate, assess, and categorize each disaster victim. After the nursing student assessment, the victims stood on large, vinyl mats in colors of black, green, red, or yellow. Faculty members reviewed the results and discussed with all students the reasoning for each patient assessment and the accuracy of the triage nursing team.
According to Judge, a primary objective for students involved in disaster simulations, “Students must develop a plan and work as a team.” Robinson agreed and stated that student collaboration and communication are vital and through the triage experience students gain confidence. “Additionally, introducing the students to a semi-realistic environment outside of the class provides an awesome opportunity for student growth,” shared Love.
Disasters are increasing. According to an excerpt from the 2011 Nurse Media Journal of Nursing, “All types of disasters, whether natural or human-made, are on the rise and pose a threat to public health. Annually, 255 million people are impacted by disasters globally, and 62,000 people per year die as a direct result of large-scale, global disasters.” Thus, creating a need for preparedness in communities, medical teams, and disaster responders.
Through the exposures of disaster simulations, students will gain a greater understanding of the complexities and importance surrounding disaster response. Furthermore, depending on the type of disaster, students need to develop strong competencies when responding to various emergencies. Through education and active disaster simulations, students develop the required skills essential to disaster response.