Pediatric disaster simulation in graduate and undergraduate nursing education.

A university partnered with community agencies to include children and parents in a mass casualty full scale exercise on an academic campus. Nursing undergraduate students provided care to students in a multidisciplinary environment that involved hundreds of victims and health care personnel. One graduate nursing student worked with a youth theater group to provide disaster preparedness education to the children, culminating in their participation in the disaster exercise. Parents reported that the exercise was positive, that they would participate again, and that their children enjoyed the experience.