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Bring Your First Aid Kit: An Unannounced Mock Drill
Theresa Wolf Grant, RN, is the director of health services of the Denton Independent School District (DISD) in Denton, Texas. She has been an RN for 30 years, 15 of which have been in school health. She is certified in the Emergency Nurse Association’s Trauma Nursing Core Curriculum, serves as regional faculty in BLS for the American Heart Association, and represents the DISD on both the Denton Emergency Planning Advisory Council and Healthy Communities Coalition Disaster preparedness has taken on new significance in our country since September 11. School nurses, advocates for school safety, must address new challenges in crisis management and emergency response. Our nation’s schools remain relatively safe places, yet well-known events in the last few years dictate the need for movement from attitudes of complacency and denial toward vigilance. Natural disasters, accidents, and violence can threaten the well-being and lives of students and staff, and in a few short minutes a peaceful learning environment can change into one of chaos with multiple casualties. Although schoolwide drills for events such as tornadoes, explosions, and shootings remain imperative, they do little to prepare the school nurse for her role in immediate response. Staging an unannounced mock disaster at a districtwide nurse meeting is one way to ensure a higher level of preparedness. It also acknowledges the legitimate concerns of crisis competency among school nurses who are often and understandably the most trusted first responders to health crises on campus.
Key Words: crisis competency • disaster preparedness • emergency response • mock disaster • school nurses
The Journal of School Nursing, Vol. 18, No. 3,
174-178 (2002) |
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