Mock drill prepares University for tragic scenario

College of Health Professions uses interactive event to give real life experience to nursing students

By Olivia Obineme

Published: Sunday, April 19, 2009

A tornado just hit Towson. It completely destroyed the area. Houses were torn apart and thousands either died or were injured. Many fled for shelter in Burdick Hall. Now what?

Knowing that panic is a common reaction to such an incident, the College of Health Professions organized a disaster simulation Friday to makes students more aware of what to do during such situations.

“Mission one was training and exposing the young nursing students at the department of nursing at Towson to disaster triage,” Col. Wayne Nelson Jr., deputy commander of the 10th medical regiment of the Maryland Defense Force, said. “They get very little exposure and we are one of the few programs in the country that gives them this kind of real life exposure to this five-star disaster triage.”

Nelson, a health science professor, was one of more than 450 people participating in the event.

Representatives of the Maryland Defense Force, a uniformed military agency of volunteers under the Adjutant General of Maryland and the Maryland Department of Mental Hygiene attended the event. Those of the various medical professions also volunteered at the simulation.

Students came in great numbers to play the victim in Operation STAT. Many of the students were participating as part of Greek Week.

“The event was good because we need to know what to do in these situations and who would help and organize during these times,” freshman elementary education major Laura Twohig said.

According to associate dean of the College of Health Professions Marcie Weinstein, Towson University functions as a surge site or “overflow” site in the event of a mass casualty crisis, albeit man-made or natural.

“So in a real situation, if crowded hospitals were to discharge stabled patients in order to take in those with more serious injuries, they could have to discharged them to Burdick,” Weinstein said.

The simulation was held in three gymnasiums, two of them were filled with patients on bed cots waiting to be attended to by the student nurses.

Junior nursing major Missy Rohrbaugh was one of the nurses assessing patients’ injuries. As she was taking care of a patient who had a piece of ceiling fall on her head she said the experience was interesting for her.

“We assessed to see if she had any pain. We checked all her cranial nerves, her motor strengths, her vital signs and we put a dressing on her head. She was quickly discharged because she was stable,” Rohrbaugh said. “In a real situation, she would get discharged to some other facility.”

Conducting this very real scenario gave everyone who participated the opportunity to gain first-hand experience.

“We may not be as organized in a real event because there are so many factors to take into account,” Weinstein said. “But it is so important to hold these training drills because these experiences are critical for students of all health professions, giving them valuable training of what to do in an emergency like this.”

Courtesy of The Towerlight