Quinnipiac University Emergency Medical Services students gathered at the lawn outside of the Center for Communications and Computing and Engineering for a mass casualty drill on Saturday. Along with medical teams from multiple local agencies, the students participated in a drill designed to simulate a mass casualty event, with evaluators monitoring the students’ performance.
After a safety briefing from Quinnipiac EMS captain Alexander Bayer, a junior nursing major, students were left in the Mt. Carmel Auditorium to wait for the drill to begin spontaneously. After three long blows of a whistle, the drill began.
As students approached the lawn, they were met by a grisly scene. Volunteer actors portraying victims were sprawled across the lawn, with a truck stopped in front of a set of bleachers to simulate a crash scene. Students were tasked with removing the victims from the scene and tending to them in the midst of the chaos.
The drill ran twice, with evaluators monitoring the performance of the students, comparing the first and second evolution of the simulation.
After the drill, the group returned to Mt. Carmel Auditorium to debrief and discuss what was done well and what needs improvement. The evaluators and actors gave their thoughts, with the consensus being the students performed very well in the second evolution after adapting to some of the issues they encountered in the first drill.
