Teaching disaster preparedness to pre-licensure students: A collaborative project during the pandemic

Readiness of nurses to respond to disasters has become paramount with the advent and sequelae of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Future of Nursing 2020-2030 report calls for nurses to be knowledgeable in preparing and responding to disaster management. In New Mexico, five associate degree nursing programs and three university nursing programs collaborated to develop a novel project in teaching disaster preparedness using COVID-19 as the disaster. Tabletop methodology via Zoom was used to simulate incident command centers in Zoom breakout rooms. Students were assigned roles to carry out during the four-hour event using resources from FEMA's Emergency Management Institute. Student and faculty post-surveys were completed with themes identified. Students appreciated collaborating with students from different schools, but also identified challenges with the event posed by remote learning. Students reported their “biggest takeaways” and identified action steps for improving future events; particularly, requesting more information to better understand their roles.