Paramedic students’ ‘zombie attack’ exercise

PARAMEDIC students were spared the “stress” of practising their skills on a life-like staged terrorist atrocity or train crash after university staff presented them with a “tongue-in-cheek” zombie apocalypse.

A student provided “film-grade special effects” and make-up to give victims “injuries” such as severe head wounds, eviscerated bowels and arterial bleeding. Staff from Arts University Bournemouth in Dorset put together a news-flash film telling the 50 paramedic students what had happened before they responded. They triaged and treated patients suffering a variety of serious and gory wounds and were overseen by professional paramedics.

Una Brosnan, a paramedic lecturer and co-organiser at Bournemouth University, said: “The idea is to make it quite tongue-in-cheek for the students so they don’t get that peril or danger and it reduces that level of stress for them.

“We could have done a natural disaster or a terrorist attack which would be quite scary for everyone. The premise might be quite farcical but the injury patterns and mechanisms are very real.”

Adam Bancroft, one of the organisers, said previously they had staged scenarios of an alien invasion and Godzilla attacking Bournemouth to make the learning experience more enjoyable for students.

Second year paramedic students and some actors were brought in to play the patients. The first day saw 50 paramedic students tackle Ground Zero before 300 nurses practised their skills in a field hospital on the second day. Mr Bancroft, the programme leader for paramedic sciences, said: “It started in lockdown – we did an alien invasion, last year we did Godzilla and this year we are re-enacting the apocalypse.

“It gets people’s attention when you’re presenting a conference but also with what’s going on in the world today we didn’t want to focus on terrorism or something like that.

“It’s a bit of fun but it also teaches the students to work with multiple casualties and patients.

“We create an austere environment where they are up against it in terms of resources and put them to the test with the threat and amount of distraction. It is a unique opportunity to put their theory into practice but have fun doing it.

“We had a make-up student creating film grade special effects and make up, that adds an element of realism.”