Held annually in May, students from Loma Linda University Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Allied Health Professions, Pharmacy and Dentistry participate in a multidisciplinary educational experience offering first-hand response management to a critical event/disaster.
More than 400 students are put into emergency response situations with hands-on experiences at the Centennial Complex and Simulation Center to develop and test their skills in scenarios including disaster triage, patient decontamination and team interactions in high-stress situations. The course includes online sessions on topics such as pandemic response, incident command systems, disaster medicine and terrorism.
Emergency response is best accomplished through teamwork and interprofessional collaboration, and many Loma Linda University students experienced that first-hand when they were called to aid at the vaccination clinics.
Loma Linda University School of Medicine has been conducting the Critical Event Response course since 2005, and is now a University-wide program to educate senior class healthcare students.