On Friday, Nov. 15, Florida Gulf Coast University hosted its inaugural “Disaster Day” Interprofessional Simulation, bringing together over 600 participants for an adrenaline-charged emergency training exercise. More than 300 students from FGCU’s Marieb College of Health & Human Services joined faculty, staff, volunteers and local first responders in an all-day simulation designed to test their ability to assess, diagnose and treat patients under pressure.
The multidisciplinary exercise highlighted FGCU’s commitment to ensuring healthcare students are prepared to enter the workforce equipped to handle real-world emergencies.
It takes a village to stage a ‘disaster’
Over 600 participants were involved, including hundreds taking part in a mass CPR training in partnership with the American Red Cross.
The large-scale mock disaster zone stretched from the Cohen Student Union to Recreation Field 1.
Some 100 student actors, many from the Bower School of Music & Arts, portrayed victims on the worst day of their lives, creating realistic scenarios by simulating injuries and distress. Emergency vehicles — including ambulances, fire trucks, police cars and a medical helicopter — added to the life-like atmosphere.
The event brought together local first responders, the Florida State Guard, the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association, the Salvation Army, Lee County Sheriff’s Office, San Carlos Fire Department, NCH, Lee Flight and Lee Health, as well as several simulation companies that donated their time and equipment. Eleven FGCU academic programs were involved, including eight from the Marieb College.
“Disaster Day provides us with the opportunity to be able to bring all professions together in a unique form where they can learn, they can help triage, evaluate, assess and treat,” said Joe Buhain, Marieb College’s director of interprofessional simulation and emerging technology. “There are many different things that you can see in a disaster day — from mental health to physical disability to psychomotor to cognitive to functional skills — impacted by disaster.”
The experience dramatically underscored the importance of healthcare professionals working together, according to Kalei Laubscher, a senior nursing major. Participating in a hands-on emergency simulation added urgency to lessons learned from textbooks and classroom lectures.
“I think the major takeaway of this experience is knowing that we work as a team, whether that’s a physical therapist or physician’s assistant or nurse or nurse practitioner,” she said. “We all work as a team, and I think team communication plays a big role in saving patients’ lives.”
Creating a realistic scenario
To enhance the realism of playing victims, actors arrived several hours before the simulation to apply moulage, a theatrical disaster makeup, to create the appearance of injuries involving blood and gore.
“I have a brain bleed and a severe head injury,” Gabrielle Joston said about her character. The gaping, bloody wound on her forehead was created with wax and makeup by a fellow theatre major. As part of the backstory on Joston’s character, the student healthcare providers had to get her on an ambulance quickly or her character would die.
“It’s exciting,” she said before the simulation.
She and other volunteer “casualties” took their positions on Recreation Field 1 under the watchful eye of four groups of first responders and Marieb College faculty, there to observe the progress of the FGCU healthcare students.
The first student responders on the simulated scene arrive. In zone D, a manikin represented a dead body next to nine actors. Joston and one other patient are the most critical, but the healthcare students on the scene don’t yet know that. Their questions aren’t scripted, so Joston has to improvise.
“Who are you?” she yells as she pushes away from three first responders.
“We’re here to help,” replies Milan Zelich, a physical therapy student. Along with Jourden Frye, a nursing student, and Casey Krontz, a doctor of nursing practice candidate, they work to assess Joston’s injuries. When asked by a faculty observer, the trio characterize Joston as a priority due to her head wound and question whether there may be internal injuries — the correct diagnosis. Within fifteen minutes, as planned, Joston goes from combative and disoriented to quiet and lethargic, and the first responders notice.
“Her status is changing,” Zelich announces. “We need to go now.”
Dan Bacalzo, theatre program coordinator and an associate professor, started working with faculty in Marieb College more than a year ago, “to figure out how we might get theatre students involved in this mass simulation event around a disaster.”
“Each actor received a patient profile with details, like being diabetic or on certain medication,” he said. “They improvised around this for 45 minutes to an hour. It’s a balance between levels of intensity to create a realistic scenario for responders.”
Preparing for real life
Disaster Day, which organizers hope will be an annual event, highlights FGCU’s focus on preparing future health professionals through experiential learning.
Kerstie Phills, who’s pursuing a master’s in physician assistant studies, said her adrenaline was “running 100%” throughout the drill. She was able to practice skills she has learned, such as controlling a patient’s airway, making sure patients are intubated if they are unconscious and delegating tasks to other team members.
“It was very exciting and a very real-life simulation,” Phills said. “I think the more you expose yourself to these kinds of situations, the more experienced and the more comfortable you become. I think the biggest takeaway was to keep yourself calm and grounded in the midst of the chaos, to stay organized and keep each other accountable.”
Before the event, Buhain said his primary goal was to engage students in interprofessional education with the hope that they would learn, not just from the event, but from each other.
“I want students to be engaged, to be much more informed than they were before and to pick up clinical skills from other students that they might never have had a relationship with, like social work or nursing anesthesia and counseling. They don’t typically see those programs together. And now the ability to work with a patient that might be in crisis is an important impact that they can see.”