Nursing student Faheem Rehman can add white water rescue to the skills he’s developed during his time at UMKC. Rehman was part of a group from the UMKC 护理与健康研究学院 that participated in 纽约 Hope, a national domestic disaster response exercise where participants hone their skills as emergency responders.
Held over four days at the Department of 首页land Security Training Facility in Oriskany, 纽约, 培训对象是护理专业的大学生, emergency management and homeland security with first responders for a simulated disaster similar to an earthquake. 其中包括快速水上救援的经验, search and rescue in a demolished building and a mass casualty event in a shopping center.
Only three nursing schools were represented and of those just ten nursing students attended. In her role as assistant professor in the UMKC 护理与健康研究学院, Sharon White-Lewis has long been a champion of the Hope Exercises, 还包括密苏里州和佛罗里达州, where she has taken dozens of college students through the years.
在他学护理专业的第二年, Rehman was excited for the opportunity to test his skills in such a unique environment.
“I’ve been in inpatient units where it’s a more controlled environment where you have a certain level of understanding of what’s going to occur,拉赫曼说. “With the nature of a disaster or crisis, you don’t have that luxury.”
他刚到会场时，一切都显得很陌生. There were four days without access to his phone or even a shower, 睡在一张小床上，旁边是他从未见过的人. Once he settled in, Rehman was surprised how quickly he adjusted to this new normal.
"It really was incredible how quickly your mind adjusts to a setting like that,拉赫曼说. “到了第二天，这里真的感觉像我的新家了.”
That also meant teaming up with a group of complete strangers for the exercise. But Rehman said he and his teammates quickly developed an understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses and delegated accordingly.
拉赫曼说:“这感觉就像创伤的纽带。. “By the end of our time together, I felt an inseparable bond with my team members. 直到现在我们还保持联系，发短信.”
Rehman said the mass casualty exercise offered the most significant stress test on the nursing skills that he’s developed at UMKC. 更复杂的场景之一, which involves dozens of actors role-playing a wide range of injuries across a mock shopping mall.
“We set up a triage system where we prioritized people by walking wounded, 延误治疗, 即时护理和死者,拉赫曼说. “Doing all that quickly and efficiently really helped me hone my assessment skills.”
分诊对拉赫曼来说并不新鲜. White-Lewis took the students through a four-hour class before they departed for 纽约. In the training she covered the triage techniques unique to disaster response as well as other in-the-field medical treatments like spine mobilization and splints.
Rehman said he enjoyed the swift water rescue exercise most as it looked both “scary and fun.” The scenario put the participants in a pool with a fast-flowing current at a speed Rehman said he’d never experience before. 怀特-刘易斯说, participants train in a level one current but the rapids can be pushed to a level four.
With his fellow participants, Rehman worked on both rescuing and being rescued. The local fire department taught them techniques for throwing ropes to someone in the current and skills to stay afloat while navigating a fast-moving current. White-Lewis said it’s a critical experience for the Kansas City area. “We’ve had a number of floods and emergency responders have had to rescue lots and lots of people.”
据Rehman说, the event left an indelible impression that has expanded his outlook on what nurses are capable of.
“It showed me that nursing isn’t limited to the walls of a hospital or a doctor’s office,” he said. “The preparation we were doing – readying ourselves for future disasters – this is for the greater good of society.”
White-Lewis will continue to provide students with this life altering opportunity when 密苏里州 Hope will be held in the fall in Joplin, 密苏里州. 她计划带35名学生一起去. That scenario mirrors the aftermath of a tornado and she says it’s important experience for UMKC students. 怀特-刘易斯说, 在2011年毁灭性的乔普林龙卷风之后, 135名护士被派往该地区提供护理.
“学生们告诉我，这些事件改变了他们的生活，”她说. “They actually have to rely on themselves and they’re proud of themselves for utilizing their nursing skills. In nursing school it’s a lot of input, input, input, with all the studying. 有了这种经验，他们可以输出所有的知识.”