Publication Date

Winter 3-5-2025

Item Type

Text

Executive Summary

Clarifying the Disaster Triage Plan for Volunteer Nursing Faculty and Students at a Private University Campus

This project provides a brief overview of the collaboration between campus security, the campus health clinic, and the nursing department at a private university in a disaster requiring medical triage. The partnership between campus security and senior nursing students aims to amplify the original plans of the current disaster preparedness and clarify volunteer roles for nursing students and faculty. Both agencies have emphasized the importance of disaster preparedness and the support role the nursing department can play in these plans. The main goal of this project was to create a protocol and education recommendations for nursing faculty and students willing to volunteer in case of a mass casualty event such as an earthquake. This intervention will allow all departments to coordinate well and have streamlined communication.

Background

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS, 2024), around 37 states in the United States, including Washington, have experienced earthquakes of a magnitude 5 over the last 200 years. The Seattle Office of Emergency Management (SOEM, 2014) states that earthquakes are the most dangerous hazard in Seattle, Washington, due to the city being on a major faultline.

During the initial assessment stage of this project, it was discussed that the nursing department had a specified role to play in the case of a disaster such as an earthquake. Specific protocols for volunteers from the nursing faculty and students needed to be developed. There was a knowledge deficit in the nursing department regarding how they could help in a mass casualty event. Without specified volunteer roles and responsibilities, confusion and inefficiency would impair the assistance and human resources the nursing department can provide. Therefore, we started our planning and based our intervention on education.

Activities

The main goal of this project was to address the nursing department’s knowledge deficit regarding disaster triage procedures in collaboration with campus security and the campus health clinic. With this in mind, we planned and implemented realistic interventions for the nursing department. The university has emergency and evacuation protocols in place, and the health clinic has specific plans for a triage tent in the case of a disaster. Drawing from these resources, we created educational tools to assist in the understanding of triage and disaster preparedness to nursing students and faculty.

Hung et al. (2021) demonstrated the effectiveness of disaster preparedness education related to increased knowledge and perceived ability of nursing students in case of disaster. With this knowledge, we developed recommendations for integrating university-specific disaster preparedness education into the nursing program curriculum. Recommendations include a fifteen-minute presentation on the triage and health clinic disaster response plan incorporated into nursing school orientation and an in-depth disaster simulation training later in the program. Simulation training would count for required nursing student clinical hours. We also held an educational session for the first year nursing students. The educational sessions contained nursing students’ and faculty’s expectations and clear volunteer roles in evacuation and triage care. This activity was done in a nursing class with 35 students, which lasted 45 minutes. This presentation may be supplementary to the presentation that the faculty can use during orientation.

Arslan et al. (2024) examined nursing students' experiences during an earthquake and found that while several students participated in search and rescue efforts, there was a significant need for improved organization and coordination in earthquake response protocols. These instructions were designed to be stated succinctly on a badge card to be attached to students’ identification cards for easy access and in resource pages accessible to students and faculty.

Triage is an important component of medical disaster response, so we incorporated triage basics into our project. SALT (sort, assess, life-saving interventions, treatment and/or transport) triage effectively provides the most help to the most people with the available resources (Mehralian et al., 2023). Basic triage instructions were included on the badge cards and within the volunteer roles document to be included in course resources. Additionally, we included a recommendation for SALT triage training to be integrated into the curriculum. While our basic triage instructions were not equivalent to SALT as we had no grey category, we emulated it as much as possible while following the triage instructions already in place by health services.

Given the ongoing nature of our project, we also created documents to ensure sustainability. The first document summarized the role of campus security, the campus health clinic, and the nursing department in case of disaster to ensure that each entity involved had the same information. The second document summarized our assessment, project, and recommendations for future projects to be given to a future leadership group.

Outcomes

We generated three goals for the outcome of the project, and we met each of these to some extent. Our first goal was that campus security and the nursing department would have clear communication on how to collaborate should a disaster occur. This goal has been met by creating our document that details the roles of campus security, the health clinic, and nursing volunteers in the case of a disaster. This document has been shared with the head of campus security and the Dean of Nursing.

Our next goal was that nursing faculty and students would clearly understand their opportunities to volunteer and what steps to take during a mass casualty disaster. This goal has not yet been met. While we created educational and informational materials, we were only able to share these with one class, evaluating their learning with a Kahoot. The created materials will be reviewed by leaders in the nursing department and will be implemented in the future after they are approved.

Our last goal was that we would execute a solid plan and outline further steps regarding the collaboration between campus security and the campus health clinic for future nursing students to utilize. We have met this goal by creating documents to share with future nursing leaders to ensure sustainability of our project.

A key limitation of the project was the limited time available to provide educational sessions to other cohorts within the nursing program. We propose incorporating a training session during orientation for incoming cohorts to ensure continuity. This session could be simulation hours, reinforcing disaster preparedness and emphasizing its importance. Additionally, we recommend a brief yet impactful disaster planning and role-specific training for staff, lasting approximately 15 to 30 minutes, to be included in the back-to-school meeting.

Conclusion

This project addressed a knowledge deficit within the nursing department with regard to how they can volunteer in the case of a mass casualty disaster. The impact of this education and policy recommendation prepares the nursing department to volunteer effectively. This project greatly improves the outcomes of the private university in the event of a mass casualty disaster by equipping the nursing department to help the security office and health clinic effectively save lives with available resources.

References

Arslan, N., Topan, A., & Kurtuncu, M. (2024). Earthquake experiences of nursing students residing in earthquake zone, the disaster of the century: A qualitative study. Omega, 302228241231013. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228241231013

Hung, M. S. Y., Lam, S. K. K., Chow, M. C. M., Ng, W. W. M., & Pau, O. K. (2021). The effectiveness of disaster education for undergraduate nursing students' knowledge, willingness, and perceived ability: An evaluation study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(19), 10545. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910545

Mehralian, G., Pazokian, M., Akbari Shahrestanaki, Y., Salari, A., Saberinia, A., & Soltani, S. (2023). Development and validation of SALT triage method to facilitate the identification and classification of patients in mass casualty incidents. Journal of Injury & Violence Research, 15(2), 137–146. https://doi.org/10.5249/jivr.v15i2.1681

Seattle Office of Emergency Management. (2014). Earthquakes: A Seattle hazard identification & vulnerability analysis (SHIVA). Retrieved January 22, 2025, from https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/Emergency/PlansOEM/SHIVA/2014-04-23_Earthquakes(0).pdf

U.S.G.S. (2024). New USGS map shows where damaging earthquakes are most likely to occur in the U.S. Retrieved January 22, 2025, from https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/new-usgs-map-shows-where-damaging-earthquakes-are-most-likely-occur-us

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