Emergencies in healthcare centers and hospitals are a common occurrence and require nurses and healthcare workers to be forearmed to competently handle casualties. Disaster drills are an effective and efficient way of gauging the level of preparedness of a hospital’s staff, equipment, and systems in handling mass casualties (Emergency Medical Services Agency, n.d.). Moreover, mass casualty drills meet the requirements of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare organizations (JCAHO) falling within EC 4.10.2 and EC4.10.15. Additionally, it is a mandatory requirement within the California State Code for hospitals to annually participate in the Emergency medical Services Survey (EMSA) drills that are usually held annually across the state (Emergency Medical Services Agency, n.d.).
Planning and participating in drills helps nurses and healthcare personnel who take part in the mass casualty exercise to establish, evaluate, carry out and revisit the successive action plans singled during the simulation (Emergency Medical Services Agency, n.d.). Mass Casualty Disaster Drills help nurses and healthcare workers reduce risks of time constraints during actual events since the drills provide a real-time simulation of the events. The mass casualty simulated drills create a platform for nurses and healthcare workers to acquire diverse perspectives, come up with viable solutions to complex issues, as well as improve their ability to efficiently take part in mass coordinated activities in case a mass casualty event takes place (Emergency Medical Services Agency, n.d.).
Disaster simulations of a triage area enable nurses to acquire essential skills vital in handling disaster outbreaks like contagious disease outbreaks by determining when to initiate the triage process, defining the boundaries of the triage area in an attempt to control and contain the situation, as well as determine the period of time for evaluation (Emergency Medical Services Agency, n.d.). Moreover, through the triage simulations, nurses get simulated experiences of the real situation improving their competence in determining locations for triage areas, appropriate and effective strategies to employ in determining boundaries, and evaluation of the best area to be used for treatment. Lastly, triage area simulations enable nurses to be conversant with hospital procedures in dealing with casualties and make reforms where the procedures fall short (Emergency Medical Services Agency, n.d.).
Reference
Emergency Medical Services Agency. (n.d.). Conducting Drills and Exercises: A Guide for Hospitals. County of Los Angeles, California: Emergency Medical Services Agency.
