CERT

Last Friday (April 20th), I volunteered for 3 hours with an organization called CERT: Community Emergency Response Teams. I worked with CERT to help train the students involved with HOSA, by pretending to be an injured victim of a simulated natural disaster. There were about 10-13 pretend victims, which the trainees in HOSA had to locate and rescue from the "ruble". I had a lot of fun pretending to have an open arm fracture. Being a victim really opened my eyes to what can make a patient feel calm in a crisis situation, and what really makes the patient feel neglected and frustrated. Some of the trainee's just yelled at me when I asked for help, and that really mad me feel angry despite the fact that I'm only pretending to be injured. If I was really injured, my fear and anxiety would only increase if someone was yelling at me. Luckily, there were some trainee's who spoke soothing words and assured me that I would be taken care of which made me feel safe and calm. In a way, I think that being the fake victim allowed me to learn more about how to respond to a victim of incrisis than the trainees, because I can now relate to how the patient feels. In the end, I had a great time, and I would recommend this project to all the students at UST as a great learning experience and a really fun time!