Major Incident Simulation
I was invited, in June 2022, to take part in a Major Incident Simulation at the University of the West of England (UWE). The training exercise, running over 3 days and involving a total of 505 individuals, was staged on university grounds and mimicked the aftermath of a major aviation disaster (complete with the fuselage of a Boeing 737 brought on campus). I spent half a day amongst student paramedics, nurses and physician associates as well as hospital staff and fire and rescue services. Such events are a fantastic opportunity for students to develop inter-professional practice whist putting their nerves to the test. They are an essential part of the practical training received by these future nurses and medics, many of whom will shortly be joining the NHS for their career. My primarily role was to play a journalist who would arrive first on the disaster scene and pester everyone around to get an exclusive story for a fictional media outlet. I also seized the opportunity to capture some of the palpable feelings and emotions as they unfolded before my very eyes.
