12 October 2019, Verona – Italy, A format to train for Basic Mass Casualty Triage

The third workshop was held as an interactive simulation incorporating characteristics of a social-psychological experiment in which were simulated a mass casualty, a docked boat in the harbor and a damaged cruise ship. The participants were randomly divided into 3 groups: observers, victims and rescuers. The observers were given the task of observing the scene and did not have to interact with the other two groups. The victims were assigned with the task to simulate a specific pattern of vital signs and triage code. The group of rescuers was in charge of helping the victims. The victims and rescuers were on a boat docked in the port and were hit by a cruise ship.

The sought after-outcome of the game was to make ordinary people without a specific background in the EMS field think and acquire the essential skills for managing a mass casualty. Further, they were expected to learn how to manage the emotional and intuitive aspects, organize available resources and perform basic initial triage of victims. This experiment was intended as a low-cost learn-model which is reproducible in the context of schools, workplace etc.

The experiment lasted for six minutes. After the simulation ended an opportunity was given to the group of observers to share their impressions and comment on the outcome of the experiment. An interactive Mentimeters solution was used to evaluate the answers provided by the audience and make general assumptions about the needs in this particular type of emergency events.