CBU's disaster simulation produces real skills from students

Riverside, Calif. (April 8, 2026) — Picture it: A 5K brings runners from nearby cities to sunny Riverside. The race begins without a hitch. Spectators stop by booths at a health fair occurring alongside the race. Suddenly, an explosion causes runners to stumble off course, gasping for air while those at the booths run to their aid.  

This scenario unfolded as part of an interprofessional education mass casualty simulation that took place on California Baptist University’s Health Science campus on March 28. CBU’s Interprofessional Education (IPE) brings together students in various health care programs. 

“This teaches students how to work with other people well, how to be a positive, contributing member,” said Dr. Jolene Dickert, professor of athletic training and co-chair of the IPE program. 

IPE focuses on improving health outcomes through collaborative work across health care fields. In the courses, students learn about the roles and responsibilities of other health programs and go through smaller simulations and discussion exercises. Graduate students in nursing, athletic training, speech language pathology and physician assistant studies along with undergraduate social work students participate in the program.  

Accreditors now require healthcare academic programs to include interprofessional education, said Dr. Dayna Herrera, department chair of IPE at CBU. 

The courses culminate with a mass casualty simulation. After a year-long endeavor to develop and switch up the curriculum, the planning committee changed the scenario, exposing students to new situations. 

“With the way it is set up and organized now, it provides a lot more collaboration among healthcare professionals,” Dickert said. They now include a pre-component in which the students work in groups to design a healthcare booth with informational handouts prior to the simulation. These booths showcased during the simulation had topics ranging from diabetes awareness to traumatic brain injury prevention.

“I think it provides more of our actual goal for interprofessional education, instead of just managed chaos,” Dickert said. 

The simulation ran four times, involving 200 students, 15 facilitators, 100 nursing and physician assistant students as patients and 25 professional actors. A few firefighters from the Riverside County Fire Department (RCFD) also participatedby aiding the “injured”.  

The RCFD has partnered with IPE in this event for several years as part of their own mass casualty training. Through it, the department has seen an increase in interdisciplinary communication throughout their team.

For the first time, nursing and PA students portrayed patients. This provided them a perspective of what it feels like to be the patient during crisis, said Dr. Sarah Pearce, director of the standardized patient and healthcare simulation program.  

“Using health students in the standardized patient role allows them to experience both sides of disaster response – provider and patient,” she said. “It aligns with our goal of preparing graduates for compassionate, ethically grounded care in complex environments.” 

After the “explosion,” actors wailed and ran for help. The students snapped into action, treating wounds like third-degree burns and lacerations. 

Despite no real injuries, they used real skills, wrapping wounds with gauze, putting others in an ice bath that was really filled with foam peanuts and consoling the distraught. 

“It’s very realistic in terms of seeing the expectations of collaborating with other professionals and disciplines,” said Jonathan Licup, a second-year nursing graduate student. “I feel like it’s better preparation for me when I’m actually on the field.” 

Following the main event, students were brought into rooms for a debrief in which they explored how the aftermath of a disaster like this could look and how they worked together. 

“You really don’t know how you’re going to be in the field with a traumatic situation,” said Jordan Caviness, a social work senior. “It was like you actually got to be there and do something.”