NEWS
The Battalion I 3.27.15
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Senior nursing students Annessa Junior nursing student Senior nursing students Jessica
Sibai and Rudy Bauder stabilize a Remmington Gouts treats burn Stauber and Kelsey Butterfield
patient's head during a transfer. victim. assist a woman during labor.
A local high school student participated by pretending to be impaled by a piece of shrapnel.
After a local high school student coded and died a
friend mourns her loss.
Senior nursing student Alexis Widacki administers A local high school student waits for medical
CPR to a victim. attention for her burned leg.
Photos by Shelby Knowles — THE BATTALION
VIEWS
A&M has a niche in
training students for
chaos and disaster
Jennifer Reiley
@jreiley1
■Bi he tension in the room
I is thick. Quick thinking
I attempts to push away
the stress and panic as long as
possible. Adrenaline and au
tomatic response take over as
patient after patient is treated.
The after effects of the disaster
are apparent, and this is just a
training scenario.
Disasters occur every
day throughout the world.
Whether it is a wildfire-
turned-fuel-tank explosion
— as was Thursday’s Disaster
Day scenario — or a hur
ricane that leads to structural
collapse, incidents will occur,
and first responders need to be
prepared.
At Texas A&M, the
amount of disaster prepared
ness training facilities is. in a
word, impressive. From Disas
ter Day to the Fire School and
Disaster City, A&M has cre
ated and maintained programs
to prepare for disasters and
the variables that make each
catastrophe unique.
While every disaster or
emergency is unique, the first
steps in responding are likely
to be the same. Each role is
going to have a protocol that
it must follow, no matter the
scenario. If responders go
untrained and disaster stakes,
a sense of panic may take over
in the adrenaline rush as they
struggle to get through the
preliminary required tasks.
With training, however,
comes “rote memory” — the
process of learning or com
mitting something to memory
through mechanical repeti
tion. Proactive training simu
lations create this memory, so
when faced with a real-time
disaster, stress can be reduced.
Disaster preparedness is
extremely hands-on. Reading
about how to triage caregiv
ers in a temporary emergency
room set up in a church is
very different than actually
working in the triage process.
The page just has Words —
the real world has emotion,
stress, sounds that can all over
whelm someone in a matter of
minutes. Students put through
training scenarios are going to
be more aware of how they
react in a stressful situation,
and leam how to carry on
with their job in the midst of
chaos. Interacting with real
people, both victims and other
responders, also promotes a
certain focus on the person.
Training also promotes
a culture of safety. Many
mistakes in industrial acci
dents can be attributed to a
lack of safety precautions or
concern for safety. If regard
for workers is placed low on
the priority list and a disas
ter does strike, human life is
not as protected as it could
be. To address this, training
facilitators insist that respond
ers think of safety first, so
much so that at some point
it becomes secondhand nature.
One example that stands
out is training at Disaster City.
Responders to a disaster are
trained that as they approach a
disaster zone, safety has to be
considered. First, is the safety
of the responders themselves.
While that may seem selfish, if
the responder is not safe they
cannot respond effectively and
may create a new incident.
Next is the safety of any vic
tims and then last, the safety of
the material items. Human life
is of top priority.
One of the Aggie core
values is of leadership, and
disaster preparedness continues
to create leaders ready to face
the challenges that come with
catastrophes, one simulation
at a time.
Jennifer Reiley is a telecomuni-
cation senior and assistant manag
ing editor for The Battalion.
DISASTER DAY CONTINUED
“[Our] goals are to improve the outcomes
of patients by allowing our students to learn
whether they successfully treat a patient or if
they make a mistake,” Cooper said. “We do
have debriefing sessions after the simulations
and, no matter what, they’re going to be con-
structive for each student, and we’re going to
take away learning points.”
To create a more reahstic experience in
treating injuries such as burns, wounds and
fractures, stage make-up was applied to the
victims, played by volunteers. Caretaker stu
dents dealt with a wide spectrum of medical
emergencies, from cardiac arrest to child birth.
Callie Davis, nursing senior, said the actors
stuck to their scripts and made the experience
as realistic as possible.
“It definitely helps to get to apply it in quick
situations like this where it’s like real life,” Da
vis said. “The actors really played their parts
well and they didn’t cut us any slack.”
Cooper said volunteers have to strictly
follow their “cases,” or scripts detailing the
victim’s medical problems, in the order they
unfold.
“If the nurses and the doctors and the phar
macists do the right interventions, the patient
may get better,” Cooper said. “If something
is not corrected in that time frame, the patient
is going to decline and then at some point the
patient may start to have a heart attack, may
have a seizure or possibly may even die.”
This year’s Disaster Day included sev
eral new players — representatives from the
School of Public Health, the College of Vet-,
erinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences’
Veterinary Emergency Team worked along
side nursing students.
“This year the School of Public Health is
involved. They have [an] interesting role —
they’re going around and looking for people
who break infection control measures, or who
have bad posture when moving and manipu
lating patients,” Cooper said. “We also have
vet-med outside. We’re just tiying to get re
ally interdisciplinary so that everybody can
communicate and work better together.”
Angela Mountain, a College of Nursing
faculty advisor for Disaster Day, said students
need to be able to work well with a team.
“They need to be able to prioritize patients,
they need to be able to respond if there’s an
incident, so we want to make sure that they
can address who’s the most important patient
and where are they needed,” Mountain said.
Brooke Morgan, student in the College of
Nursing, said the gym was quartered into four
pods — groups of healthcare students — that
functioned independently.
“Each pod has a charge nurse, it has its set
of staff nurses, it has its attending physician,
and they are their own unit,” Morgan said.
“Before they came out they were in a team
building room and they were discussing how
they were going to run their unit and the roles
that each person was going to be having.”
The day’s schedule ran through student
team building sessions and two disaster simu
lation sessions followed by debriefings and a
presentation by a Red Cross speaker.
Trisha Sheridan, assistant professor in the
College of Nursing and faculty advisor to Di
saster Day, said the event was sponsored by
the A&M Health Science Center, the Ameri
can Red Cross, USMD Health System and
local businesses.
FOOTBALL
Price, Obioha: team still
adjusting to Chavis’ new system
By Cole Stenholm
The sun set on spring practice number nine
Thursday evening for the Texas A&M foot
ball team, and new defensive coordinator John
Chavis was the topic of discussion for defensive
endjulien Obioha and defensive end coach Ter
ry Price, who stopped for interviews after the
team was dismissed.
“You just got to look at it, everybody gets a
clean slate,” Obioha said. “All spots are open.
You got to make your claim to a spot. You
know it doesn’t matter if you started two or
three years, or are a returning starter, it doesn’t
really matter. A new scheme, all the spots are
open, sc> you just got to study your playbook like
you’re a freshman.”
Obioha acknowledged a clear transformation
in Chavis’s system and admitted that he has had
to alter some of his own defensive techniques so
as to mesh with the Chavis prototype for his po
sition. But, Obioha believes he’s coming along
just fine, and coach Price echoed that.
“I tell you what, he’s really improved,” Price
said. “He’s had a lot of time to work at it, that’s
one thing we’ve stressed more than anything this
spring. He’s worked at it. Obviously, I don’t
think he’s blessed with the skill set that some
of those other guys have, speed, quickness, an
Lenae Allen — THE BATTALION
Defensive end Julien Obioha answers
questions concerning new defensive
coordinator John Chavis.
extra first step, but to me, what he lacks there, he
makes up with technique and some hand speed,
and some upper body techniques.
CONTINUED ON THEBATT.COM
EQUESTRIAN CONTINUED
year’s SEC tournament is in its backyard
at the recently completed Hildebrand
Equine Complex.
“Our athletes are incredibly proud of
their facility,” said McKay. “ They know
they are very blessed to have this facility.
They also know what it is like to not have
a home and a locker room, so having this
facility for them has been a tremendous
addition to our team. It is always nice to
compete where you feel comfortable.”
The Aggies, who have yet to lose a
home match this season, are a perfect 6-0
at I lildebrand. Despite the homefield-ad-
vantage, McKay said the Aggies will not
be riding the same horses they ride during
the regular season.
“To make the event as neutral as pos
sible, all four schools bring horses for post
season meets,” McKay said. “Each team
ride horses from schools that are not in
their bracket to ensure the competition is
fair. Therefore, the traditional home field
advantage is not as large as it can be during
regular season meets. Still, we are very
excited to showcase our fabulous facility.”
The Aggies take on the Gamecocks at
10 a.m. Friday. The consolation match
starts at 9 a.m. Saturday and will be fol
lowed by the SEC finals at 1 p.m.
Junior Logan Pluhar rides in horsmanship competition against Auburn.