Plumes of smoke wafted through the air and sirens wailed as Brock Nursing students responded to simulated disaster outside the University’s East Academic Buildings on Friday, May 16.

The scene was part of a high intensity “code orange” emergency exercise, which replicated the aftermath of an explosion in a hospital parking lot and was designed to test the clinical and critical thinking skills of 32 Bachelor of Nursing/Master program (BNMN) students.

Amid the chaos of a crisis, teams of students wearing personal protective equipment, triaged six patients — one high-fidelity mannequin patient and five student volunteers in the BScN program — using the Canadian Triage Acuity Scale and Glasgow Coma Scale, a neurological assessment.

For participant Elizabeth Rylaarsdam, the simulation was a confidence boost and opportunity to apply her classroom learning to a life-like situation, something she said helped to make the rigorous accelerated BNMN seem more manageable.

Facilitating the emergency response training were Assistant Professor of Nursing and course instructor Vanessa Silva e Silva, Graduate Program Clinical Supervisor Magdalena Dobosiewicz, Nursing Simulation Lab Supervisor Shelley Oaks, and Nursing Simulation Lab Co-ordinators Rebecca Larocca, Tori McDowell, Emily Bot and Sylas Colleto.

“We design code orange to mirror the complexity of a real-life mass causality,” says Silva e Silva. “They help students not only apply clinical skills but also build the confidence and resilience they’ll need to act in a high stressful and rapidly evolving scenario such as an explosion disaster which was the case for today’s simulation.”

Dobosiewicz says in addition to providing an immersive experiential education opportunity, the simulation also supports knowledge transfer within the nursing community.

To date, the organizing team has received research ethics approval to evaluate data on students’ experience and will also write an experience report sharing insight into the planning of a cost-effective code orange activity.

“Publishing this information is paramount to the growth of nursing programs in the country that might want to develop similar activities but may not know where to begin,” says Silva e Silva.

Karyn Taplay, Chair and Associate Professor of the Department of Nursing looked on as the scene unfolded with media representatives capturing footage and bystanders observing the scene, which added another layer of realism to the day.

She says the BNMN is unique in Canada, with the pioneering program offering students who already have a degree the opportunity to earn both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Nursing in 20 months.