Are Ontario’s hospitals and emergency first responders ready for a large-scale disaster that could disrupt a city and overwhelm the health care system? On February 28, a realistic simulation exercise at Centennial College’s Morningside Campus tested the ability of emergency response and health care workers to deal with a fictional threat to community resources.
Firefighting, paramedic, police foundations and nursing students training to become first responders and health care professionals sprang into action in a multidisciplinary response to a large-scale disaster simulation. The campus was transformed into “Centennial City,” complete with a hospital, fire station and police station, and populated by volunteer actors playing assigned roles with realistic makeup to simulate injuries.
This year’s scenario revolved around an extreme weather event, which triggered a series of 911 calls to engage all of the fictional community’s emergency services. After a snow and ice storm caused the local mall roof to collapse, injuring and trapping people, firefighting students conducted a search and rescue operation. Adding to the mayhem was a bus crash, which saw paramedic students assess, triage and transport patients to the local hospital.
As the hospital became overwhelmed with patients, nursing students assisted doctors and nurses in delivering emergency health care under a Code Orange activation. Police Foundations students attended to numerous 911 calls, including one for a missing 12-year-old Indigenous child, for which the response was informed by an Indigenous cultural guide. In fact, at every step of the exercise, students were guided and mentored by program instructors and professionals from the field, including actual firefighters, police officers, paramedics and emergency doctors and nurses.
“Centennial’s mock disaster exercise is a prime example of how inter-professional teams work together across first response and health care,” said Rita Morehouse, Chair and Associate Dean, Emergency Management and Public Safety Institute at Centennial. “Giving students hands-on experience applying lessons from the classroom and navigating realistic scenarios that first responders and health care workers may face is a unique and important learning opportunity.”
Local and provincial emergency management personnel were among the observers in attendance at this year’s event to watch the true-to-life exercise unfold. Centennial’s School of Community and Health Studies has been running its annual mock disaster exercise since 2005, when the City of Toronto’s Heavy Urban Search and Rescue team was first invited to participate and contribute to students’ experiential learning.
For more photos of Centennial’s exciting disaster simulation, check out this report from CBC News.
Learn more about the School of Community and Health Studies’ program offerings.