Cara Gallegos and undergraduate nursing students Cat Ostrem, Sarah Lew, Taylor Beckman and Alanna Belz are celebrating the publication of their manuscript, “When Disaster Strikes: Are RNs Prepared for a Mass Casualty Incident (MCI)?” to the August 2018 peer reviewed journal, RN Idaho.
The manuscript creates an overview of the current lack of adequate training that acute care nurses receive when caring for patients who have been involved in MCI’s such as bombings, shootings, hurricanes and wildfires.
To further understand the lack of training and its effects on acute care nurses, they examined current evidence on whether providing MCI education improves knowledge, confidence and skills for baccalaureate nursing students or registered nurses. During their research, they found that, “over 90 percent of emergency physicians do not believe their health systems are fully prepared to deal with large-scale emergencies with only 49 percent believing their system is even moderately prepared.” As a result, they found that implementing training benefits hospitals, healthcare providers and patients because it equips acute care nurses with the fundamental tools required when dealing with MCI’s.
Read the full manuscript: When Disaster Strikes: Are RNs Prepared for a Mass Casualty Incident (MCI)?.