TOLEDO, Ohio — A boiler explosion has injured nearly a dozen people. EMTs rush to the scene, pulling the wounded on stretchers. Those who are bleeding out are rushed to the emergency room, while others are moved to the burn ward.
"It was pretty chaotic at first, being thrown into a situation where there's a lot of stuff going on, not really much direction, and everyone coming in at once. Pretty stressful," said nursing student senior Hannah Gibbons.
Luckily, it was just a drill for Mercy College's senior-level nursing, medical technician and paramedic students.
Dawn Borgerson, the simulation coordinator, says this exercise is as close to the real world as students are going to get before they enter the medical field.
"This is the most comprehensive simulation they will participate in, and so they're using skills they have perfected at the beginning of their program through the whole length of this program," said Borgerson.
Not only does it put into practice everything they've learned in their lectures, but it also gives them experience working with real professionals to learn their strengths and weaknesses.
"Some students are more confident than others," said Dr. William Saunders, the head of Emergency Services at UTMC, "so just bolstering them along so they're more confident in their own skills, and as we work through the specific skills like IVs and getting EKGs, those are all things they need to improve on."
Gibbons says the simulation gave her a chance to try things she had previously only heard about in the classroom, and she's glad she can practice in a safe setting.
"So, I've never dealt with triaging patients before. I've been in the setting of an ER, but not actually triaging patients," Gibbons explained. "And so I think that really narrowed it down and kind of was like 'wow, this is a very typical situation you could see on an everyday basis in the ER.'".
Gibbons says as she and her classmates graduate in December and start their careers, the simulation further readies them with a new level of preparation.