What’s Right with our Schools: Howard Triage

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — Some schools are preparing kids for ‘the real world’ before they finish high school. Howard wants students to be prepared whenever there is a disaster.

Here’s today’s edition of “What’s Right with Our Schools.”

The ones doing the triage out there tagging currently, they will be in clinical internship this next year.

“Howard has four institutes, and one of the institutes is the Erlanger Institute of Healthcare Innovation,” said Kendra Harris, Future Ready Institute Lead for Erlanger Institute. “What we have right now is a big PBL, where all the students, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade students that are in the institute, have come together, and they decided to do a mock disaster.”

“I say it’s helping us from, just in case it actually happens, and we’ll have the tools to do it. Like we have the knowledge of what to do,” said Howard sophomore Krishina Clark.

“We have a lot of disasters in our world, in our country, from floods, tornadoes. Unfortunately, you have school shootings. But we want them to be prepared whenever there is a disaster,” Harris said. “So, the students have been learning different techniques, different medical techniques and different medical skills in order to prepare themselves for an actual event, whether it’s at school or in a community or at home.”

“The big thing for me is that they learn what to do in an emergency situation. Whether it be a cardiac arrest, they know to look for an AED, which will save a life or stop a bleed. I mean, somebody can bleed out right in front of you,” said Deb Fitzpatrick, Clinical Education Director for Erlanger.

“Because these students are in the Erlanger Healthcare Institute, they are the ones who are performing the different types of medical treatment. We have some students that are doing CPR. They learned about stop the bleed, so they’re stopping the bleed. They also learn about triage, where some of the students are going around and they’re tagging injured victims,” Harris said.

“This mock drill is going to help us in medical profession by giving us experience, which is good for anything. And it’s just going to help us be better and knowing more of what we’re talking about,” said Howard junior Thomas Miguel.

“The more you do something and the more you’re trained, the more it kind of sharpens that skill and makes you more prepared. The more prepared you are, I think the less shocked you will be,” said Daniel Love, Clinical Research Director for Erlanger.

“And also, we have some students that are coming to, going around, learning, teaching students how to put someone on a stretcher, how to actually mobilize someone for them to be able to take what you know here and use it in a community for their family or for anybody. Whether it’s a stranger… I want them to be able to do that and be able to just give to the society,” Harris said.