Natural disasters are occurring with increasing frequency. While nurses may be familiar with emergency preparedness and response concepts, they often lack direct hands-on experience. It is imperative to develop strategies to support novice skill development so a greater number of healthcare providers will have a basic knowledge of disaster preparedness and response.. In order to yield maximum benefit, the All Hazards Approach is utilized in training that prepares staff for a wide range of scenarios rather than select situations. Simulation is often utilized in healthcare as a substitute for real-time experience and a safe environment to explore new concepts. In addition, storytelling is a valuable modality to engage novice learners and build understanding. This program utilized simulation and storytelling as two modalities to engage novice learners and develop a deeper understanding of the nursing role in the disaster life cycle.
Objectives
- Describe the stimulation activities utilized in a collaborative international disaster nursing training program.
- Utilize storytelling strategies as an integral part of the teaching process to capture the emotional interest of the learner
- Acknowledge interdisciplinary collaboration with various community agencies for disaster response and recovery
Program Implementation
A group of students with an interest in disaster nursing visited a healthcare organization to understand firsthand accounts from the hospital administration and staff perspectives of their experiences with Super Storm Sandy, including preparation, mitigation, response, and recovery efforts. The students heard stories of local nursing students who took an active and innovative role in the disaster response in New York City.
Simulation experiences included disaster victim triage, clinical intake, and recovery support group scenarios conducted in a simulated clinical environment. Debriefing with the students elicited the impact of each experience. All participants reported a positive response to the experiences overall, citing the realistic scenarios and impactful narrations of the responders. Some students expressed intention to utilize simulation in their own communities and schools as a useful way to spread information and bridge the gap for those who lack direct hands on experience.
Storytelling was directly implemented by responders, survivors, and community agencies at the site of direct impact and devastation from the storm. The participants learned the significance of sharing experiences from different perspectives and the role and importance of nurses, first responders and community representatives in times of natural disasters.
Conclusion
Simulation of disaster scenarios and storytelling are valuable and feasible modalities to engage novice learners and build understanding. This program created a student exchange program that fostered knowledge and cultural sharing between US nursing students and Japanese nursing students. This was an educational experience that reached beyond textbook learning by emerging the nursing students in the heart and soul of Disaster Training through the wisdom and expertise of first responders, global public health experts and survivors. Long term relationships between the US nursing students and the Japanese nursing students were established so they can continue to exchange ideas throughout their careers.
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