Some 54 senior students from the Piedmont College R.H. Daniel School of Nursing recently took part in an intense two-day emergency response training session at the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) in Anniston, Alabama.
The students, from both the Demorest and Athens campuses, along with Dr. Julia Behr, dean of the School of Nursing, and nursing professor Karen Greilich, graduated from the CDP’s Healthcare Emergency Response Operations (HERO) and Emergency Medical Response Awareness (EMRA) courses. Both courses train responders in how to react to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive disaster scenarios.
The training includes classroom and simulation exercises in which participants complete various nursing skills such as wound care, injections, and starting IV’s while wearing level C personal protection gear; including respirators. Students learned the importance of proper procedure for mass-causality triage, setting up field stations, and decontamination.
The CDP is operated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency, and is the only federally-chartered weapons of mass destruction (WMD) training facility in the nation.
Dr. Behr said the training is especially important for the students as they begin to prepare for the annual disaster drill here at Piedmont College. More importantly, “Lifelong learning is an important part of the nursing profession, and because of this training they will be eligible to take future courses from FEMA throughout their nursing careers,” Behr said.
