Nursing students work to save lives during earthquake scenario

Published On Mon 21 Aug 2017 by Cara Longmuir

A major earthquake has struck Dundee and Fife, and University of Dundee nursing students have been drafted in to help.

Magdalen Green in Dundee and Beveridge Park in Kirkcaldy will be turned into major incident zones as part of annual resilience training for first-year students. They will be asked to react to the scenario that there has been an earthquake and they must act fast to help those in need.

Over 180 students will be providing first aid and specialist care to a team of volunteers with the help of the 225 Medical Regiment Scotland. The exercise will run for several days with both Dundee and Kirkcaldy campuses taking part.

The students will be given a series of tasks which are designed to further develop their team working, leadership and technical skills. It will also test their physical and emotional resilience.

Organiser Tom McConnachie, a lecturer at the University’s School of Nursing & Health Sciences, said, “Teamwork, communication, decision-making and leadership are core attributes necessary in newly qualified nurses. Students also have to develop both physical and emotional resilience to face the challenge of working within busy clinical environments.

“We are grateful to the 225 Medical Regiment and our volunteers for allowing us to take part in an exercise of this scale.

“It is specifically designed to help students identify and develop teamwork and leadership skills early in their educational programme. It will give them an understanding of how a team is led, how roles within that team are determined, and how to improve their communication and problem-solving.”

The Dundee students will take over Magdalen Green from 21st -23rd August and then again on 28th August. Kirkcaldy students will be in Beveridge Park 29th-30th August.

This activity builds upon work students have previously done with the 225 Medical Regiment. To watch last year’s exercise go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiTCXpEmgsY&feature=youtu.be

For media enquiries contact:
Cara Longmuir
Media Relations Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
Tel: +44 (0)1382 385243
Email: c.z.longmuir@dundee.ac.uk