Nursing students prepare for disasters

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the need for emergency workers on the East Coast has become vital. But while there has not been a disaster of that size in our area. One local nursing program is preparing for the worst, while working to be the best.

They are images projected on millions of television scenes across the country; the damage and mayhem caused by Hurricane sandy. While we may be hundreds of miles from the eastern seaboard, a group of Ivy Tech nursing students stepped out Friday morning from the class room and into the thick of a disaster situation with massive causalities.

"Today's scenario is a very foggy morning it's a school bus accident with a dump truck. There are a number of injuries," Dr. Ann Valentine of Ivy Tech said.

On board the bus were their classmates acting as wounded patients. With Injuries ranging from minor to catastrophic. It was up to the nursing students to assess and save as many lives as possible.

"If they are in an emergency in the field or an emergency room they can't stop to consult a text book or an instructor. They have to be ready as professionals to make their own decisions and to act with confidence,” Valentine said.

Part of their training involves setting up triage stations. Each is color coded like a stop light for a reason: green for the least wounded, yellow for patients of high importance and red for victims that are in critical condition.

While the scenario is different from Hurricane Sandy, the skills they are learning are incredibly important.
"The situation still can be very similar you see for example on the east coast you're seeing children and families being rescued from emergency situations. Hospitals are being evacuated with (neo-natal care) nurses bringing (infants out) and having to manually run the breathing apparatus for those infants,” she ended saying.

A scenario that is preparing these students for a situation that class rooms can't begin to fully explain.