ECU students train in mass casualty simulation

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - Students of ECU’s Brody School of Medicine and College of Allied Health Sciences’ Department of Physician Assistant Studies worked together to participate in a mass casualty simulation on Saturday.

The future healthcare professionals split up into teams and rotated through different stations of the Inter-professional Trauma Emergency Assessment & Management (I-TEAM) agenda.

For this year’s main event, students triaged a simulated boiler room explosion in the middle of a hurricane.

“We have some standardized patients come out, we have the theatre department give them fake wounds, and they act out this disastrous scenario,” said Alex Doherty, ECU Emergency Medicine Interest Group President. “We have to come in as students, triage them, evaluate their injuries, and figure out how soon they need help.”

Students also participated in skill set labs including decontamination, airway support, and hemorrhage response.

Each team was eager to get the hands on experience after spending last year away from in-person learning due to the pandemic.

“Last year during COVID, they didn’t have the event as a first-year student,” said Doherty. “So, this is the first time I’m seeing this in action as well.”

After the drama of the simulation and the interactive lessons of the skill labs, second year P.A. student Cole Deazer said, “I’m so excited to go start working with real people.”
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This year’s simulation event was the third annual training session for Brody students. In years prior, the medical school partnered with the ECU College of Nursing and held the event on its own.