UCAM carried out a large-scale traffic accident drill at the Murcia City Council Fire Academy today. The drill included several cars, a bus and electric vehicles, which added an extra degree of difficulty due to the risk of combustion. Numerous injured people, played by students of the degrees in Nursing and Psychology, were attended to by emergency teams and students of the Master’s Degree in in Emergency Nursing, Emergencies and Special Care and General Health Psychology.

Pedro Guirao, head of the Fire Service of the Murcia City Council, underlined the importance of these activities: ‘The main objective of this type of drill is to improve coordination between the different services involved in an emergency: health, security and fire services. In addition, it allows students, future health professionals in the field of psychology and active personnel in the case of nursing, to become involved in these collaborative dynamics from the early stages of their training.’

The exercise included an initial triage, carried out by the nursing students, which made it possible to classify the victims according to the seriousness of their injuries. Afterwards, the students of the Master's Degree in Psychology intervened in the immediate psychological care from the Advanced Medical Post (PMA), as well as in the areas destined for those less seriously affected, applying techniques of emotional containment and psychological first aid.

Ana Isabel López, UCAM vice-dean of the Bachelor's Degree in Psychology, stressed that this practice ‘is the culmination of clinical simulation, a teaching methodology applied in both the undergraduate as well as the master's degree’. In the same vein, Vanessa Arizo, director of the Master's degree in nursing, emphasised that ‘we have fulfilled the objectives of this degree, which are to lead and act effectively in critical situations in collaboration with the emergency services.’