Bryan Health employees participate in decontamination training

Individuals can be exposed to potentially deadly chemicals in a variety of ways. Bryan Health employees are staying ahead of the game by participating in hands on training.

“This is one of the pieces of disaster preparedness that we want to make sure hospitals are prepared to manage,” Director of Hospital Preparedness, Barbara Dodge said.

During the training exercise staff members learned how to properly put on and take off personal protective equipment, map out decontamination zones, set up tents and equipment, use decontamination showers and treat mock victims as if it was actually happening.

“We see a lot of movies and drama where everyone seems to figure it out last minute, that’s not the real world,” Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, Tobias Watson said. “You need to know you’re equipment, you need to know how to set it up, you need to know where it is, who to call and who you’re team members are going to be.”

Chemical decontamination exercises are critical to the health and safety of patients, visitors and staff.

Staff members say the hands on learning is the best way to practice before it becomes reality.

“I love when we get to the end of the exercise and the class can say, we can do this,” Dodge said. “They have no idea what they were doing but when they finish, they can say we are confident and we can handle the patients that would come into our hospital.”

The training exercise on Wednesday was the final event of the ‘Hospital Receiving Training Program.’