BYU EMS performs biannual mass casualty incident drill
BYU EMTs and student nurses participated in their biannual mass casualty incident drill in the Marriott Center on Saturday, Nov. 4. The incident involved hundreds of student volunteers in addition to the BYU police and Provo fire departments.
Student EMTs and nurses were tasked with providing medical aid for more than 100 participants at the event to prepare them for a real emergency situation.
“If I have them trained in this environment where it’s insane, it’s dark, it’s disorganized. When they show up and they only have ten patients instead of 150, it feels so easy,” BYU EMS events supervisor Calvin Reed said.
BYU students from the theater and nursing colleges portrayed realistic gunshot victims during the mass shooting drill.
“We have the makeup, we have the screaming, we have everything, but that’s what you’re going to see in real life. So if we don’t have that, I feel like we’re going to be more shocked going into real MCIs,” Reed said.
EMT training supervisor Alec Richardson said collaborating with the fire and police departments as well as the student nurses is vital when running the event.
“A big part of what we do as first responders is coordinating with other people. It’s not about just rushing to the scene and starting doing things. You have to be organized to be the most efficient,” Richardson said.
Alyssa Denison, a student nurse at BYU, said she was intimidated by how authentic the event felt.
“It feels surprisingly real. It was kind of scary because you hear the gunshots happening and everything, and then you realize this is a situation that could happen in real life and you want to know how to respond,” Denison said.
The EMTs, nurses and student volunteers were given the opportunity to run the drill twice to give the EMTs and nurses an opportunity to correct mistakes made during the first drill.
According to Reed, BYU’s next MCI is scheduled for the end of March 2024.