TTUHSC students train for real emergencies during Disaster Day simulation

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Do you ever wonder how medical professionals gain the experience to handle and treat patients during high-stress situations?

For TTUHSC, it’s called Disaster Day. KCBD spoke to students about the importance of getting hands-on experience in a controlled environment.

Karley Kieschnick, a level one nursing student said, “There is a lot of noises, there is a lot of people, there are outside noises. So yeah, I had absolutely no idea of what was going to happen today.”

Students from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center like Kieschnick go into Disaster Day with very little information. It’s a simulation of a disastrous event, in this case, a tornado.

Renee Bogschutz, Assistant Provost at TTUHSC said, “When a disaster hits, we want to be there to respond, and we want to train our learners to work in teams to be able to deal with the health needs of the community.”

Learning how to treat patients during chaotic situations isn’t something you can teach inside of a classroom. That’s where theater students from Texas Tech and South Plains College come in handy, each assigned a specific injury and role as a victim.

“The SPs are great, they do not break character at all so they really make it as real as possible for us which is extremely helpful because if they were breaking character and giving us hints there would be really no point in having this simulation,” Kieschnick said.

That dedication came as a shock for some students, but not for Jacob Richardson, who is a first-year medical student interested in emergency medicine. For him, this exercise gave him a look at what his specialty could entail.

“Patients with altered mental status, had patients who were somewhat apprehensive and didn’t want or didn’t trust doctors which is absolutely something that you will come into contact with,” Richardson said.

Equally as important is learning to work as a team. Nursing students, athletic trainers. EMTs and others quickly learned that each and every person in the healthcare field has different strengths.

“I say I know this person has an injured ankle, but I don’t know the next steps to take, and I have a PT, an OT, and an AT that are all experts in that field. We had an EMS that was really good at airway and breathing. It is great to see how well we complement each other and how much respect you gain for all other specialties,” Richardson said.

Each piece plays a vital role in the future of our community health.