Implementing a multidisciplinary disaster simulation for undergraduate nursing students.

A liberal-arts-based undergraduate nursing program engaged in curriculum enhancement activities that led to the implementation of a disaster simulation for 81 multidisciplinary undergraduate students. A pretest/posttest design was used to determine the effectiveness of preparation for the simulation. Nursing students in three levels of the program received didactic preparation in disaster preparedness and were assigned to five different simulation response teams. One-way ANOVA revealed statistically significant differences for pretest and posttest scores, p = 0.05. An evaluation of student performance indicated that five of the eight nursing students assigned to the disaster site correctly triaged 81.2 percent of the victims; all eight nursing students assigned to the emergency department correctly reassessed the victims. Classroom didactic content, followed by a simulated learning experience, was found to be an effective teaching strategy for preparing undergraduate nursing students in disaster preparedness.