Simulating Chaos: Empowering Nursing Students Through a Disaster Response Drill

The 2021 American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) The Essentials: Competencies for Professional Nursing Education revised standards incorporate a focus on population health, including disaster preparation and response. Nursing educators must ensure their curriculum incorporates these concepts in order to prepare nursing students for real-world practice.

Faculty created a collaborative mass-casualty simulation involving multiple community disaster response agencies to create a realistic scenario for experiential learning.

Faculty perceived three themes that emerged from debriefing: (1) triage process, (2) communication and collaboration, and (3) leadership. Faculty found this learning experience was vital for students to understand the importance of collaboration with multiple community agencies in the navigation of an appropriate disaster response.

Nurse educators should tailor simulation-based experiences to incorporate didactic concepts, such as triage, communication, and collaboration, with an emphasis on leadership skills in order to prepare students for real-world disaster response.