Texas A&M Students Lead Disaster Day Simulation

On March 1st, 2024, Pulsara was honored to participate in the largest student-led disaster drill in the world at Texas A&M’s Disaster Day in College Station, Texas. The team, comprised of students in various healthcare disciplines, used the Pulsara communication platform to manage the incident, including triaging and tracking around 300 patients, documenting treatments, and ordering and delivering meds from the field pharmacy.

The following is an excerpt from an article by the Texas A&M University Health Science Center, originally published on Texas A&M Today on March 1st, 2024. Check out the full article here. 

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Texas A&M University students sorted through the chaos of tropical storm-induced floodwaters, an earthquake and a shooting on Friday in a simulated disaster designed to prepare future health care professionals for large-scale emergencies.

The student-led exercise, held at Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service’s (TEEX) Disaster City in College Station, tested students in a variety of areas, including triage, patient care, mental health support and disaster management.

Started by the Texas A&M School of Nursing in 2008, the training has grown from a small event in the gym of a local church to a daylong disaster simulation involving more than 700 students, over 100 faculty and staff members, and numerous emergency response professionals. Students from Texas A&M schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy and public health, as well as athletic training, psychology and veterinary medicine students and the Corps of Cadets, participated in the drill.

Christine Kaunas, assistant vice president for Interprofessional Practice, Education & Research (IPER) at Texas A&M Health Science Center, said the annual Disaster Day exercise is an important component of preparing students to work together in emergency situations.

“Since 2020 alone, Texas has seen over 15 disasters and related declarations, including wildfires, tropical storms, hurricanes, winter storms, and of course COVID-19. Ensuring that our health professions students are prepared to respond effectively when, not if, a disaster strikes is crucial,” Kaunas said.

More than 50 students from Texas A&M Health work to plan and organize the event, with oversight from faculty and staff members as well as staff from TEEX, the Texas Division of Emergency Management and participating partners.

Each year, a new scenario is selected and kept secret until the day of the event to provide the realism of an unexpected situation. This year’s simulated disaster included a tropical storm, flooding, an earthquake and an active shooter. The students engaged in triage at the disaster site, patient care at mock field hospitals, mental health care and needs assessment at an evacuation shelter and family reunification center, and disaster management and simulation oversight at Disaster City’s Emergency Operations Training Center. 

Read the full story here

With only one month's notice, St. Joseph Health EMS in Bryan, Texas, was able to rapidly prepare for and successfully provide medical services for an 8-weekend, 40,000-visitor-per-day event with Pulsara. Here's how they did it.