SIUE’s School of Nursing Collaborates with Local Emergency Responders for Mass Casualty Exercise
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s nursing students participated in a mass casualty exercise in coordination with Air Evac Lifeteam 156, Edwardsville Fire and EMS. This exercise is another example of how the School of Nursing provides hands-on learning and practice in a variety of environments and scenarios.
“Educating nurses in community health includes health promotion and disease prevention; however, it also includes ensuring preparedness for unexpected, devastating events such as mass casualties,” said Myjal Garner, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, instructor of family health and community health nursing. “A multidisciplinary approach promotes collaboration between emergency responders and future nurses, allowing for a more comprehensive learning experience to augment didactic learning.”
The exercise simulated a scenario of multiple people injured from an explosion. In collaboration with the emergency response professionals, the nursing students triaged the injured using sort, assess, life-saving interventions and transport (SALT) and simple triage and rapid treatment (START) mass casualty triage systems.
“The mass casualty event was one of the best experiences I encountered throughout nursing school,” said Jayla Newton, senior nursing student. “It was interesting to see the medical field in so many different aspects rather than just the hospital. I truly learned so much from this experience and will use this knowledge in the future as a nurse.”
SIUE thanks our local partners for their dedication to our community and for their partnership to ensure a well-prepared nursing workforce.
Photos: SIUE community health nursing students, Air Evac Lifeteam 156, Edwardsville Fire and EMS.
SIUE nursing students work to triage the injured during mass casualty exercise.
An emergency response professional teaches SIUE’s nursing students during the exercise.
