Interprofessional education: A disaster response simulation activity for military medics, nursing, & paramedic science students

Health care providers need to be able to function and react appropriately and efficiently during a community-wide disaster situation. Traditional health care education is not adequately structured to provide realistic experiences with respect to high-risk or infrequently encountered events such as a disaster. As a result, many healthcare providers graduate into practice with inadequate exposure or skills to intervene in a disastrous event. Previous studies validate that active participation by students during a simulation can translate into positive, meaningful learning applicable to practice. This paper describes how a disaster response simulation can be utilized as an innovative experiential learning technique. Additionally, interprofessional collaboration and positive learning experiences were fostered between military trainees and health care students in nursing and paramedic sciences. The constructivist framework utilized enabled educators to incorporate interprofessional collaboration, clinical reasoning, and technical skills in the safe learning environment of a simulation.