Students Experience Mass Casualty Nursing From the Patient Perspective in a Simulated Mass Casualty Exercise

Ethan Start; Joan M Culley; Abbas Tavakoli; Vera Polyakova-Norwood

doi:10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000646

Students Experience Mass Casualty Nursing From the Patient Perspective in a Simulated Mass Casualty Exercise

Nurs Educ Perspect. 2021 May-Jun;42(3):174-176. doi: 10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000646.

Authors

Ethan Start¹, Joan M Culley, Abbas Tavakoli, Vera Polyakova-Norwood

Affiliation

¹ About the Authors Ethan Start, BS, is a medical student, School of Medicine, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina. Joan M. Culley, PhD, MPH, RN, CWOCN, FAAN, is Professor Emerita, College of Nursing, University of South Carolina. Abbas Tavakoli, DrPH, MPH, ME, a biostatistician, is a clinical professor, College of Nursing, University of South Carolina. Vera Polyakova-Norwood, MEd, is director of distributed learning, College of Nursing, University of South Carolina. This research was supported by the National Library of Medicine (1R01LM011648-01A1). The authors thank Dr. Mary Foster Cox, Associate Clinical Professor, College of Nursing at the University of South Carolina, for her expertise and assistance in developing the learning modules and supervising students during the exercise. For more information, contact Dr. Culley at joanculley@gmail.com.

Abstract

Life-saving response to mass casualty incidents (MCIs) requires education and training. Participation in an MCI full-scale exercise provided nursing students with a rare opportunity to experience a simulated disaster from the patient perspective to better understand the unique issues involved in mass casualty response. This innovative teaching approach enabled students to undergo triage and decontamination as victims of a chemical MCI and participate in a research study. We describe student feedback on this learning experience and the implications of incorporating a full-scale MCI for providing a patient perspective into nursing curricula.

MeSH terms

Curriculum
Disaster Planning*
Humans
Mass Casualty Incidents*
Students, Nursing*
Triage

Grants and funding

R01 LM011648/LM/NLM NIH HHS/United States