(From Springfield Public Schools)
In the cafeteria of Study Alternative Center, CoxHealth Dr. Matthew Brandt stood in front of every SPS school nurse and asked a simple question.
“You’ve been through the simulation, through an emergency drill,” he said. “How can we all do better next time?”
On Thursday, Aug. 9, every SPS school nurse participated in two immersive emergency preparedness drills. The simulations, overseen and coordinated by the OTC Allied Health Simulation Lab, were completed by first responders from CoxHealth and Mercy Emergency Medical Services, Greene County Sheriff SWAT team members and Springfield firefighters. The coordinated effort was designed to train nurses on how to respond to a major medical emergency as part of their professional development.
"Our school nurses learned a lot of things today,” said Jean Grabeel, director of health services at SPS. “We first talked about triaging and emergency preparedness and how to stop the bleeding with use of tourniquet and wound care, various methods to move injured persons safely to safety, and how to respond to a disaster. Their learning can save lives here at school and in our community.”
In the two-hour training, the variety of community organizations worked together to simulate a crisis, following and practicing their typical emergency response procedures. Springfield Fire assisted EMT, while SWAT members tried to identify those with simulated injuries. Each school nurse was given an opportunity to learn how to work with emergency responders in the event of a crisis.
“Initial management of an injured patient is the responsibility of who is standing next to them,” said Brandt. “The safety of the people around you is your responsibility, and that’s not just a teacher and a student. That might be a parent and a child or a bystander at a bus stop. That initial management is the person who can help.”
Springfield Fire battalion chief Eric Latimer agreed.
“It’s about helping those who can’t take care of themselves, and we’ll be there as soon as we can, but those minutes matter,” said Latimer.
After the training, the nurses received a grab and go kit. The newly created kits for every school feature clings, EpiPens, pen lights, wound packing materials, face masks, gloves and more, all in one kit.
“If they’re called to an emergency, that will be the bag that they grab and go,” said Grabeel. “It’ll be something they grab regardless of if there are multiple people injured or it’s just a student who needs immediate assistance in a classroom. They’ll be ready to respond.”
That readiness and ability to respond by school nurses is critical for the safety of all students at SPS -- something that Dr. Brandt knows not just as an emergency response professional, but as a parent, too.
“I take my kid to school,” said Brandt. “I’m entrusting Springfield school staff to take care of my kid when I leave them at school. It is paramount that nurses have the ability to manage that first two or three minutes for my kid’s safety, and I know they can.”
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