(The Texas A&M University Health Science Center today conducted Disaster Day—an annual mass casualty disaster training exercise—designed to give future health care professionals experience working together in an emergency setting. Now in its ninth year, Disaster Day is one of the largest disaster simulations in the country.
The one-day event, which is carefully planned and executed by students and faculty within the Texas A&M College of Nursing, provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to respond in mass emergency situations. Each year, a new scenario is chosen to push students to test their emergency response skills outside the classroom. The scenario is kept secret until the day of the event in order to provide a more realistic simulation. This year, the students participated in a mock hurricane response with mass injuries resulting from structural collapse, flying debris, flooding, fire and other hazardous conditions that often occur as a result of a hurricane.
Approximately 400 community members playing the role of patients were painted with makeup to portray survivors with varying degrees of injuries, from cuts and scrapes to gaping wounds and compound fractures. These volunteers helped create a realistic, emotional scenario for students by mimicking panicked patients—complete with screaming, crying and pleading for help. More than 300 students from the Texas A&M Colleges of Nursing and Medicine, the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy and the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences participated.
The interdisciplinary nature of the event provides students in the health professions the opportunity to practice working together across medical specialties to develop appropriate role expectations, respect and teamwork.
“Providing health care during a mass casualty situation calls for teamwork, critical thinking and stamina,” said Martin Mufich, MSN, RN, clinical assistant professor at the Texas A&M College of Nursing and faculty advisor for Disaster Day. “This simulation challenges students to think and respond based on their education to-date, while at the same time requiring them to communicate and understand the roles that all health care professionals play in caring for patients.”
Disaster Day is uniquely representative of the Texas A&M University Health Science Center’s simulation and interprofessional team approach to education. By tasking students from multiple health care disciplines to respond simultaneously, as a team, students enhance and expand their medical knowledge and cooperative techniques for treating patients.
About Texas A&M University Health Science Center
Texas A&M University Health Science Center is transforming health through innovative research, education and service in dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health and medical sciences. As an independent state agency and academic unit of Texas A&M University, the health science center serves the state through campuses in Bryan-College Station, Dallas, Temple, Houston, Round Rock, Kingsville, Corpus Christi and McAllen. Learn more at vitalrecord.tamhsc.edu or follow @TAMHSC on Twitter.
