MUW held a “Disaster Day” Training
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Police, Fire, and ambulance crews responded to the Mississippi University for Women campus this morning.
The scene may have looked like a disaster, but it was part of a well-planned drill to allow First Responders to put emergency plans into action.
It also gave Nursing students at The W an up-close look at how agencies handle things before the patients get to them.
“This is to let our students see how all the different entities come in and work together,” said Lisa Griffin, Assistant Professor of Nursing
MUW coordinated with emergency personnel from Columbus to host the drill.
The exercise included an active shooter scenario and one simulating a vehicle running through a crowd of people.
“It is helping us prepare and know what our resources are,” said Kimora Williams, MUW Nursing Student. “To know that if we need help with anything, we can always reach out to them. This also shows that we are all in collaboration at the end of the day.”
“It helps me see how other people deal with situations,” said Kaleb Webster, MUW nursing Student. “I had a lot of firefighters and police officers and a few nurses to come and deal with me, but it was interesting to see how other roles kind of react to the situation.”
Nursing students were able to get the hands-on experience of dealing with injured patients, loading them onto stretchers, and working in the field with emergency personnel.
Assistant Professor of Nursing Lisa Griffin said, this is all to better prepare the next generation of caregivers.
“As I tell my students all the time, we do not nurse in silos.” said Griffin. “It is not just us, we always have to work as a team, and there is no way we can take care of all these patients without the police coming in and making sure the scene is safe, and without them transporting them to us. We all need to know what everybody’s role is, so that we can come into the picture and can all work together.”
Columbus Fire and Rescue PIO Jaquay Sherrod said exercises like this also help first responders learn to adjust when the situation may call for it.
“It helps us out because we get a chance to work with other organizations, and we find out what works and does not work, and them we go from there.”
The “Disaster Day” drill happens every year in September, and more than 100 students participated in the event.
