When Disaster Strikes
Triage nurse Mary Peters
needed to act quickly. A
tractor-trailer had overturned
on I-95 in Miami, spilling
thousands of gallons of a dangerous
chemical onto the roadway.
Simulation: During the mock
disaster drill, nurses dressed in hazmat
suits decontaminate a patient
exposed to a dangerous chemical.
Peters knew that in less than
five minutes, the first casualties
exposed to vapor and fumes from
the spill would be arriving at the
hospital. She’d have to quickly don
a hazmat suit and station herself,
along with other nurses, inside a
decontamination tent, where the
victims would be hosed down and
scrubbed before entering the
emergency room.
The chaotic scene outside the hospital, though, was making her job difficult, as families and reporters had already started to arrive, demanding information about victims.
Mass-casualty incidents like this one test the skills of the nation’s nursing corps every year.
For Peters, however, this disaster was only a drill, a simulation that was part of a three-day training session designed to teach graduate students in the University of Miami’s School of Nursing and Health Studies how to prepare for and deal with patients who have been exposed to dangerous substances.
Following proper procedures
when reacting to a
mass-casualty incident “takes
so much longer to do than
when you just read about it in
a manual,” says Valerie M.
Bell, M.S.N., M.A.C.P., C.R.N.A.,
associate program director-
Nurse Anesthesia Program and
simulation coordinator at the
school. “We wanted to give
our students the knowledge
base to respond to such an
incident and experience what it’s
really like. We’re making a big push
for experiential learning.”
About 17 nurses from Jackson
Memorial Hospital’s trauma, intensive
care, and operating room units
joined the University of Miami
students during the training session,
which was conducted by experts
from the American Nurses Association
(ANA) and the International
Chemical Workers Union Council.
The training covered everything
from how to identify
and sanitize patients exposed
to hazardous substances to
the proper way to don a
hazmat suit and set up
a triage center and
decontamination
area.
Donning protective gear before rushing to the aid of chemically exposed patients is critically important for nurses, the ANA’s Holly Carpenter told students during the session’s opening day, citing a 2008 incident in Durango, Colorado, in which a nurse fell gravely ill after she helped a man who showed up at the hospital soaked in unknown chemicals.
Inside a large decontamination tent, nurses used hoses and sponges to cleanse chemically exposed victims before they were taken by stretcher into the emergency room.
At the incident command center, Jackson staff nurse Susan Rodney, R.N., and Corey Jago, R.N., University of Miami nurse practitioner graduate, directed the massive disaster response, tracking the status and condition of patients, issuing press releases, answering questions from the media, and setting up a rumor control hotline.
Among the crises that occurred: An infant had to be intubated and transported to Miami Children’s Hospital and a chemically exposed pregnant female delivered a stillborn fetus.
“The students appreciated the symphony of organized chaos,” Bell said, noting that this was the first training of its kind to be offered at the school
