SWAU nursing professors will soon see the print debut of an article they authored in 2023 on integrating disaster management into college curriculum in the Nursing Education Perspective, a research journal published by the National League of Nursing (NLN). As more and more natural disasters occur, the need for effective and rapid disaster response has never been more relevant. Many communities are counting on their local nurses to know how to respond to disaster situations. To meet this need, the Southwestern Adventist University Department of Nursing developed a one-credit disaster management course. 

Nursing professors Dr. Terri Gibson, DNP, MSN, RN, AMB-BC, DipACLM, Kathy Davis, MSN-RN, and Dr. Ann Smith, Ph.D., CPNP-PC, CNE, RN co-authored the article, the primary focus of which speaks to the need for nurses to take leadership roles in disaster/casualty events. Gibson, Davis, and Smith also co-authored the curriculum for the disaster management course and presented it at the Nurse Educator Conference in the Rockies in July of 2024. According to the article, research has found that “nursing curricula lack a sufficient focus on emergency preparedness, mass casualty response, and evacuation.” 

To fill this gap in education, Gibson, Davis, and Smith detail the creation of the Disaster Readiness and Intervention course and its educational process. Students enrolled in the course have the opportunity to study and research different disaster scenarios and to engage with their community through shadowing disaster relief services nurses, mental health and pastoral care professionals, and first responders (firefighters, EMTs, police, etc.). The seminar culminates with students engaging in an “escape room”-like situation, where they must use their knowledge to communicate, make decisions, and manage time constraints to resolve each situation.

“One of the big benefits of the course is to instill a love of volunteering in the hearts of our nurses,” said Davis. “Experiencing the scenarios and learning in a teamwork setting does more than just give students the “right answers” to these disaster situations: there are no “right answers.” It gives them the tools and resources to know how to handle whatever situation they find themselves in, and how to work with the people who are around them when that situation happens.” 

After they have completed the course, students journal their experience with disaster relief management and how they can apply it to their nursing practice. The review of the journal reflections of 66 students in two separate cohorts found that students all shared similar themes of preparedness, understanding of disaster victims, knowledge and stewardship of available resources, and teamwork.  That latter skill was the most relevant to many students who took the disaster course, as they believed that teamwork and collaboration was “what a nurse is doing”. The ease with which programs like this can be integrated into educational curriculum can serve as a model for other universities to begin training their student nurses in the essential skills needed to effectively manage disaster situations. In January of 2024, Davis and Smith received the Susan Hassmiller Scholarship Award from the American Red Cross, with the goal of helping integrate the seminar-course in schools nationwide.  

The article “Integrating Disaster Management into Curricula: A Successful Collaboration with Community Partners is currently available in digital format (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37428638/), and the printed version will be available in the March–April issue of Nursing Education Perspective, 2025.