The joys of being in nursing school, whenever there is a disaster drill NURSING STUDENTS are there to be the actors and make all the drama come to real life, as much as we can.. I have been disaster drills in the past and always on the side of staff, i was the EMT who helped everyone. I was never the patient and this last week has been an eye opener for me.. As we arrived to St Marks hospital i was surprised at how i longed to be there to help people and not be a "victim". I wanted to help those in need and not be one to act and feel helpless as we were told to do. As the day went on i played the part of a mother who had 8 month old twins that were non responsive, a drunk that demanded a drink ( i was arrested and thrown to a curb 3 times, that was hilarious), and i was a 47 y/o female who was having chest pain. The hardest role i had was to take one of my fellow nursing student and pretend she was my 7 y/o daughter with cerebral palsy, was sick with signs of the swine flu ( now known as H1N1) only to be told my daughter did not qualify for care, the life that my daughter had was not in the category to qualify for hospital care.. My job was then to get all the media attention and tell them they were sending my daughter home to die.. at one point i had 4 TV cameras on me while i was yelling at an MD telling him how stupid he was and how my daughters death was on his hands.. There was only a small clip of our seemingly forever long conversation, but i will take my 5 seconds of fame. This gave my a new perspective to what my job as an RN means. I appreciate the opportunities i have to help improve the preparedness the community works on for a pandemic. After all was said and done, i was glad to know that i do feel safe if something major is to happen. There are so many factors the public are not aware of that we as medical personal have to take into consideration. I am not sure i agree with all the goes on, but i promise to take care of everyone in my power and to help them feel as though they are my family. Here is a little tidbit from the news.. ENJOY!!
