LLU Senior Healthcare Students Prepare for Emergency Medical Situations

LOMA LINDA >> Loma Linda University (LLU) was able to respond to the San Bernardino Terrorist Attack that occurred this past December very quickly and strategically. The preparedness of the LLU medical staff resulted in readily available crash carts, triage tents, and countless medical supplies set up for mass casualties and it only took 18 minutes to do so. As part of medical students’ educational curricula, LLU has put together a course that trains their students how to be “effective responders in mass casualty and disaster events”. This past week, Monday, May 9 through Friday, May 13, LLU’s senior class of health care students participated in integral coursework in order to train for these disaster situations. According to Tae Kim, M.D., course director, the program has been ongoing since 2004. However, they recently expanded the course in order to include other disciplines like nursing, pharmacy, allied Hhalth, and dentistry. “We may not have asked for something like last December to happen to us but what we can do is prepare for it, train for it, and choose how we respond,” Kim added. “It’s not that this half day course will make [students] experts in disaster medicine or emergency care but you can imagine that [they] are going to feel a whole lot better than people who’ve never had this kind of experience before.” There were three different courses the students had to endure: triage, “SIMS”, and decontamination. Triage consisted of a brief instruction about how to determine the severity of victims. It’s important to be able to determine which people have the most severe injuries; therefore, they use different colored tags to make it easier. Once the person is quickly evaluated, the student will determine if the are a red, yellow, or green. Red, being the most severe was described as someone that would most likely die if not taken to the hospital quickly enough. Yellow was in the middle, not as severe as the red but more severe than the green. Each student was to approach this course as if each scenario was a disaster or emergency situation, the course did not fail to showcase a realistic event. After being briefly trained on which victims should receive which colors based on the severity of the injuries, they were put to a test. Some of the students were given triage kits and entered a separate room that was staged as the aftermath of a mass shooting. The scenario was that a husband went on a shooting spree and killed himself after shooting and injuring a lot of people, including his wife and baby. The students’ job was to respond to the tragedy in the most effective way possible by checking every single person in the room, determine the severity of their injuries by assigning them the appropriate color. The scenario was very realistic as the “victims” of the disaster were paid actors. Once the doors opened to the room, the victims were screaming and holding their realistic wounds while crying for help. The next course was “SIMS”, it was held in the simulation lab. One of the scenarios was also a paid actress that was detoxing and the students had to deal with treating her even though she kept resisting in a very unpleasant manner. In the room next to her was a mannequin that simulated real-life symptoms. The mannequin or patient had a hydrofluoric acid burn. The group of students had to act fast by reading his vitals, calling and administering certain medication as if the mannequin was a real person fighting for his life. The last course was located outside. Students were taught about the procedures of decontamination. Most of the students had to try on HAZMAT (hazardous material) suits, and got a hands-on experience with the decontamination process as they washed and cleaned a mannequin that was ‘exposed’ to hazardous chemicals. [END] (NOTES FROM EVENT): Loma Linda University held their integral coursework Dr. Tae Kim, M.D., member of the faculty. Course director for the program for the past 9 years but they’ve been doing this program for the past 12 years, since 2004. “It began as a required rotation for the medical students … suggested that we needed to have some sort of disaster training for medical students even prior to 9/11. Three years ago we expanded the course to include the other disciplines and the University Nursing Pharmacy and Allied Health and Dentistry so this course has been in some form been ongoing for the past 12 years and this one for the past 3 years. So we all thought that the first major event we would have in this area would be an earthquake or maybe a train derailment…wildfire, we didn’t think that it would be something like a mass shooting but we were prepared for it. Even though SB is the less glamorous brother to Los Angeles to the west of us…we thought all the action would happen there, but it happened here but we’ve been preparing our students for over a decade now for an event like this. We may not have asked to have something like last December happen to us but what we can do is prepare for it and train for it and choose how we respond. Its not that this half day course is going to make you experts in disaster medicine or emergency care but you can imagine that you’re going to feel a whole lot better than your friends and colleagues who’ve never had this kind of experience before. We operate in teams, in groups, and even though were educated in silos, we don’t work in silos…We have to be able to work with other healthcare professions so this is something else that’s entirely unique that the University is doing and that you should be very proud of. Members of the Media are invited to observe this integral coursework for senior class health care students attending Loma Linda University May 9 - 13, 2016 (9 sessions) WHAT: When tragedy struck in San Bernardino, CA, on December 2 of last year, Loma Linda University Medical Center medical staff had triage tents, crash carts, medical supplies and healthcare personnel ready to treat mass casualties. This response was put together in 18 minutes. This was not by chance. It was not by accident. We train our students to be effective responders in mass casualty and disaster events as part of their educational curricula. Loma Linda University School of Medicine spearheads a “Multidisciplinary Response to a Critical Event/Disaster: An Innovative, Interprofessional Educational Experience,” and you are invited to attend. Students from Loma Linda University Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Allied Health, Public Health, Pharmacy and Dentistry will participate in an innovative, interprofessional educational experience: a multidisciplinary response to a critical event/disaster. Through six different critical event/disaster simulations, students will: Recognize potential critical events/disasters and be able to implement initial appropriate actions Know the principles of critical event/disaster management Demonstrate critical event/disaster safety principles Demonstrate effective critical event/disaster communication skills Know the complex communication needs for a critical event/disaster Demonstrate appropriate communication skills within each team Identify the appropriate communication steps, information to be reported, correct reporting authority, and alternative modalities Understand the incident command system, and the purpose of an institutional disaster operations plan and their potential roles in them as caregivers/responders Apply relationship-building values and the principles of team dynamics to perform effectively in different team roles Demonstrate the knowledge and skills needed to fulfill their role during a critical event/disaster Roles/responsibilities: Use the knowledge of one’s own role and of other professions’ roles to appropriately respond to the critical event/disaster scenario Demonstrate a climate of mutual respect and shared values throughout the exercise WHEN: (Nine repeating sessions) Monday, May 9 through Thursday, May 12, 2016 (2 sessions each day) 8:00 am - 12 noon and 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm, and; Friday, May 15, 2015 (1 session) 8:00 am - 12 noon WHERE: Loma Linda University Health Centennial Complex, 4th Floor, 24760 Stewart Street, Loma Linda, California 92350 MEDIA IS INVITED: Loma Linda University Health (LLUH) is extending an invitation to members of the media to observe and report on this innovative interprofessional educational experience. INFORMATION: We are asking Media to R.S.V.P. to this event. (although some triage simulation areas are spacious, space in the simulation lab is limited) Please contact Susan Onuma, media relations specialist, sonuma@llu.edu or 909-651-5823 to reserve a spot in 1 of 9 available sessions (Limit: 3 media representatives per session)