The activity is meant to ensure the school’s graduating seniors are confident and capable in the transferable skills of proper infection control and disease screening techniques. On hand to observe the preparedness drill were University President Donna Shalala and Dean Nilda (Nena) Peragallo Montano, both public health experts. Peragallo Montano said, “This simulation scenario takes infection control from an abstract concept to a concrete learning experience. We are using a real-world situation, the Ebola epidemic, and turning it into a teachable moment for our students. Everything they are learning is absolutely generalizable to prevention of other hospital-acquired infections, which are a public health issue.”
The exercise evaluated the students on patient screening, clinical decision-making, and infection control, as well as on their ability to interact with emergency first responders when transferring suspected Ebola patients. To help achieve this last aim, City of Coral Gables firefighters worked in tandem with the students. The Coral Gables Fire Department utilized the practice run to exercise their own protocols for transferring persons suspected of having Ebola to local hospital emergency rooms. Both students and firefighters exercised the process of “donning and doffing” protective equipment using specifically established steps to avoid contamination.
According to the World Health Organization, the Ebola fatality rate is about 50%. Persons are infected via contact with infected persons’ bodily fluids. Health care personnel, due to close patient contact during diagnosis and treatment, are vulnerable without protective equipment.
Directing the simulation activity was SONHS faculty member Summer DeBastiani, RN, MPH, a disaster preparedness expert who came to UM this past fall from the CDC Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response. “A simulation like this is the last step in a process that provides students with the education needed to handle a specific situation,” explained DeBastiani. “Before the drill, we prepared the students with informational lectures on the history of the West Africa Ebola outbreak, signs and symptoms of Ebola, its treatment and epidemiological management, as well as CDC and Miami Dade County protocols and guidelines for protection of health care providers caring for persons under investigation for Ebola. All current senior nursing students at our school will complete this training before graduating.”
The simulation was developed using the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) method, a capability-based exercise methodology which allows for different disaster response personnel to work together to exercise plans and protocols. At a post-event debriefing session, known in emergency preparedness jargon as a “Hot Wash”, participants convened to discuss lessons learned during the exercise. This feedback will be used to develop the After-Action Report and inform the next disaster simulation activity.
