Florida Gulf Coast University hosted its second annual Disaster Day simulation, drawing more than 900 people to the campus. The event focused on training students for real emergency scenarios.
Around 275 students from the Health and Human Services program, including those studying to become nurses, physician assistants, and therapists, participated in the training alongside first responders and the Florida State Guard.
“Doing this provides us an awareness that we need to grow, we need to teach, we need to educate, and we need to get these students better prepared when an emergency occurs,” said Joe Buhain, Director of Interprofessional Simulation and Emergency Technology.
The drill featured hundreds of actors to create realistic trauma scenarios, allowing students to experience situations many of them had never encountered before.
“It’s realistic. It’s definitely it can be shocking for a lot of people, if they step into it and they’ve never seen a gory like bandage, or if they’ve never approached like a car accident or big injury setting,” said Heather Jones, an FGCU student.
The university emphasized that such drills help build confidence in students before they face real-world emergencies.