Colton Crissman

10/05/17
Mrs. Roche
Community Clinical
Disaster Drill

Today at clinical my peers and I participated in a mock “live shooter” event at St.

Joseph’s Hospital in Warren. The entire staff at St. Joe’s and local police department were

involved as it took place in the emergency department. The goal was to enact a situation where

an active shooting had taken place and it was the hospital’s job to respond to the event in a way

that they would if it were real by triaging injured patients and taking care of them to the best of

the hospital’s ability. I really didn’t know what to expect going into that morning, and really was

surprised at how involved everyone must be in such an event. The amount of communication

necessary in order to successfully achieve continuity of care is astonishing. Due to a wide range

of injuries people needed to be sent many different places for emergency surgery whether it be

within the facility or elsewhere. The team had to be very quick on their toes and react quickly to

the different injuries each patient presented with. This communication process for transfer or

(report) is usually very detailed and set up to help ensure the best care possible. However, in this

situation communication had to be completed almost immediately to save lives.

Describe the community as a setting for all levels of health care

Although more practice may be needed to perform such an incident more smoothly, it is

truly awesome to see so many people come together in the community for the benefit of

everyone’s health. Not only as an entire healthcare staff at St. Joe needed to successfully perform

the drill, but many other healthcare professionals at other facilities and transferring in between.

Not to mention the police department, quick response team, and possibly fire department to make
the area safe before any care could be provided. After all, the definition of health does have a lot

to do with the safety of the environment we live in every day. A good amount of this safety has

nothing to do with the work of healthcare professionals.

We are taught from a young age the importance of teamwork. It is truly such a vital

aspect of being efficient in the field of healthcare. Without great communication, delegation of

care, and overall respect for everyone in the healthcare community a great healthcare system in

our communities would not be possible. Situations similar to the disaster drill should be routine

in our communities not only to help prepare for this very unfortunate situation; moreover, to

bring everyone together as a team to function as a better healthcare system and understand how

to function is such disasters ever did effect our city.