A group of nursing students file into a classroom at UNC Greensboro where one of their faculty instructors tells them they need to get to the scene of a crash, as first responders need their help to triage the victims.

The students fan out to find passengers, some of whom are crying or wandering in shock. Some can’t move at all. The students identify the most severe injuries that need treatment first. 

Fortunately for everyone involved, the victims are actors. Their injuries are created with makeup.

The UNCG School of Nursing (SON) ran the daylong scenario in October as part of a disaster-simulation exercise for seniors. Faculty monitored the students while they moved through stations in the Nursing Instructional Building (NIB). It was SON’s largest simulation to date.

Private First Class Pattie Bumpus, a senior and one of SON’s military-affiliated students, was impressed by the level of preparation. “I never imagined that this was something I would be taught in nursing school,” she says. “This was an opportunity to learn and get feedback that I can use to perform better in the field.”

Critical Skills with Real-World Applications

Any mass-casualty event – be it an accident, natural disaster, or deliberate attack – would escalate the typical demand on local hospitals and emergency rooms to an unprecedented level.

“Having that ability to critically think in a short period of time in an austere environment or under duress is paramount,” says Clinical Assistant Professor Tommy Mann, director of the Simulation Center for Experiential Nursing Education (SCENE) and Clinical Learning Laboratories, who led the exercise. “We put our students in critical and crisis-related scenarios that expand their knowledge, improve their critical thinking, and drive them to be better nurses before they graduate.”

Nursing faculty led each of the four stations:

• Triage at a plane hard landing 
• Search and recovery in a building gas explosion and fire 
• Airway and breathing advanced skills  
• Stop the Bleed training and certification 

Mann and other nursing faculty made sure the simulation reflected realistic environments. “We use everything from high-fidelity technology to analog manikins, computer-based training to hands-on skills.”

He recruited actors from the community as well as student actors and makeup artists from the College of Visual and Performing Arts. “One of the perks here at UNCG is the friendliness that we have amongst the different departments,” he says. “The ability to reach across to the next building, to bring people in and say, ‘This is what we’re doing. How do you want to get involved?’” 

Collaborative Learning 

After each station, the groups had a debriefing with faculty to discuss what they did well and what they might do differently.

For example, in the triage station, Bumpus says that if they have an uncooperative patient with minor injuries running around in a panic, they can assign a nurse to watch over them, but that might divert their attention from the others needing care. Faculty suggested an alternative: give that patient a task that safely occupies them. 

“This was a learning experience, not for a grade,” she says. “I enjoyed that we were able to debrief and get feedback. To hear, ‘This is what you guys did so well, and this is what you need to work on.’”

SON’s faculty and military/veteran students led the airway-and-breathing station. They drew on their experience from the military to show the other students how to evaluate a patient, access their airway, and stabilize them. Many of these students are or were medics in the military.  

Bumpus says she and the classmates on her team naturally fell into complementary roles based on their strengths. “When you get into a group where you’re cohesive, you know you can depend on one another,” she says. “Where I’m weak, my teammate might be strong.” 

Stop the Bleed 

SON added the Stop the Bleed station to equip students with another life-saving advantage. Once each of them completed it, they were certified as Stop the Bleed-trained. 

“We’re the only University in North Carolina providing hemorrhage control or Stop the Bleed training and certification to all seniors,” says Mann, “With this course, they’re one step ahead on their resume and their skill-building.”

Emergency officials recognize this as one of the most pivotal forms of first aid; a person with a grievous injury can bleed out in minutes. This program by the American College of Surgeons is not just for health care workers. It prepares anyone, even children, to put pressure on wounds or make tourniquets. 

Bumpus was already certified, but she took the training again. As an Army veteran and former high school teacher, she has long recognized the need to train more people how to Stop the Bleed. She says, “Even a lay person, once you teach them, can become a health care aid and save someone’s life.”

Partnerships Improve Student Experience 

Many of the nursing students who participated will graduate this spring, and Mann is proud to give them that experience before they enter the workforce. He credits the swell of support from SON leadership, faculty, and other departments with making it a success.

“Everybody came together and rallied with these students. It’s a large cohort, and we’re only getting larger here at UNCG,” he says. “I can’t wait to do it again with the next group of seniors.”

Bumpus agrees. “My biggest takeaway as a nursing student is you never know what to expect, but we’re trained for that. That’s what our faculty are doing: training us to be calm under that kind of pressure, and I’m much more prepared.”

Story by Janet Imrick, University Communications
Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications
Video by David Lee Row, University Communications