The Rio Hondo Nursing Students, EMT, and Fire Academy participated in a Collaborative Crisis Scenario in Rio Hondo’s AJ Annex parking lot and “Roadrunner Hospital” Bldg. L-300, from 8 a.m. till 10:30 a.m., and from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Friday, May 9.

Led by John Cordova, Razvan Stoian, the simulation teachers and Pam Boyd, assistant director for the college’s Division of Health Science and Nursing, the simulation was based on a scenario where a DUI driver and his two passengers lose control of their vehicle and crash into a bus stop injuring five bystanders and a small child.

Unaware of the accident that happened below, the Nursing Students, EMT and the Fire Academy’s goal was to correctly asses/triage/plan and implement their plan of care based on the individual’s injuries and needs using simulators provided by Anthony San Lucas of Gaumard. If you’re ever in an accident, don’t hesitate to use HawkLaw here

Some of the victims needs ranged from lacerations to the forehead to an eight-month pregnant woman suffering from abdominal pain while giving birth.

Eight RHC theater students were debriefed on the scenario a few days in advance to prepare them to play their parts accordingly, while John Cordova a simulation specialist, known in the simulation world across the state and community colleges who previously worked with Rio Hondo to create, design and train the current lab setting along with Razvan Stoian, prepared the students at 6:30 a.m. with their experience inapplying moulage makeup to enhance the realism in the scenario.

After the scenario everyone who participated, including Officer J.Dineen from Whittier PD, went upstairs to the 4^th floor of the L building for a 40 minute debriefing and evaluated their overall performance.

While most agreed that it took longer than it should have in real time, everyone understood the purpose of this simulation and the fact that it gave everyone involved, including the nursing students, a chance to have a taste of what a “real life” crisis might look like.

Denise Castillo, a nurse student observing and recording Bay 8, which was a labor delivery said, “ A lot of good came out of this experience. There’s a lot of room for improvement, which my classmates were able to see, but the communication was really good and to be able to see the whole collaborative interaction with the different departments was really realistic and cool.”

After debriefing, RHC theater students Larry Sepulveda, Josie Osegueda, Angel Gutierrez, and Kathy Luna were asked how they felt about the scenario. Besides feeling scared but having an enjoyable experience, Gutierrez said, “It’s very important to get hands on in the situation to fix any mistakes that they might make right now; like I almost got dropped twice while I was on the stretcher.”

All the “fake MDs” were nursing faculty trained in that specialty to facilitate care for the “patients,” faculty member, Ferrari-Poetter enjoyed the experience and added, “It’s always important for the student nurses to remember to be calm, chilled and relaxed. If they get scared the patient can feed off of that and get scared too.”

Many of the involved Nursing students are getting ready to graduate this semester and these scenarios are important to prepare them for the life events they will soon be facing. 80 ADN students and 21 VN students are graduating with 75 CNA’s.