Batch 42 Student Nurses prepare for Mass Casualty Simulation

As part of the overall training of nurses, mass casualty management is one of the courses and included in that course is a component called emergency communications, because during a mass casualty event, communications plays a pivotal and critical role.

If medical first responders know what the situation is, the type of injuries sustained, the number of people involved and the location of the incident, they can prepare and respond with a mental image of what to expect, communications facilitating an effective response.

On Thursday, November 21, over 30 final year student nurses staged a pre-simulation drill designed to sharpen their communication skills, for a major simulation to be held next month.

The scenario for this event involved an accident in the Greenville area of Largo Heights with two victims sustaining serious injuries. The student nurses were divided into four groups. One group served as Command Post where most of the first responders were in waiting, two groups served as stretcher bearers, while the fourth group served as ‘victims’ and ‘members of the public’ at the impact zone.

As part of the fitness exercise, all student nurses including supervising lecturers walked from the entrance of the Botanic Gardens to Largo Heights, a distance of about a mile uphill. After ‘stabilising’ the victims by the medical first responders, the two injured persons were transported by stretcher downhill to the School of Nursing (DNE), which also served as the Advanced Medical Post.

Following the field exercise, both lecturers and students critically evaluated the exercise with the view to correcting any errors made.

Coordinating the Mass Casualty Management (MCM) training is lecturer Hilton James assisted by DNE lecturers Sis. Morvette Nash and Sis. Sherma Providence. Guest lecturer Donald De Riggs conducted the training in emergency communications. The main MCM event is scheduled for mid-December. (Report submitted by: Donald De Riggs).