On Sunday, October 25, starting at 9:30 a.m., DeSales University will host a triage training exercise for its nursing and physician assistant students in the Gambet Center for Business and Health Care.
For the exercise, five groups of two students each will have approximately 10 minutes to run through each scenario and provide the necessary triage. Scenarios will include victims of chemical burns, lightning, a deck collapse, a gunshot wound, and a motor vehicle accident.
Standardized patients (SPs) will act as victims in each of the scenarios. Assigned injuries will be created through the use of theatrical make-up. Standardized patients are individuals from the community who are trained to portray a patient with a specific medical condition. By interacting with SPs, students gain experiential skills by performing physical examinations and other clinical skills in our simulated clinical environment. SPs provide valuable feedback and can help to evaluate student performance.
This feedback will be part of the debriefing held after each scenario. At each scenario station, there will be a facilitator as the students conduct their triage assessment.
At the completion of the drill, a debriefing discussion will be held to review the strengths and weaknesses of the event, which will assist in planning for future drills.
"The goal of the drill is to provide student the opportunity to use and enhance the skills acquired in the classroom and apply these skills in a real world setting," said Dennis Rasley, director of emergency services and incident commander for the exercise, “They are then better prepared for their post-graduate careers.”