Preparing for Emergencies and the Future of Healthcare at Forrest Health

To those passing by on US Hwy 49 South recently, the yellow tent set up on the north end of the Forrest General Hospital campus may have appeared as if utility work was going on. But, if they looked beyond, they saw multiple firetrucks, ambulances, and the first responders that accompany them. After all, it was Friday, February 13, and what better day to stage a large-scale mass casualty emergency preparedness drill.

Conducted by Forrest General Hospital, this multi-agency drill was used to test emergency response procedures and coordination with community partners, including the Mississippi State Department of Health, Hattiesburg Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services, AAA Ambulance, and the hospital’s local Emergency Operations Center. The drill was designed to enhance readiness, improve communication, and ensure the hospital and its partners were prepared to respond effectively in the event of a real emergency.

Involving more than 60 people, the drill was a fabrication of a warehouse explosion where an unknown chemical was released. Those injured in the explosion were transported to a decontamination tent set up on the FGH lawn and manned by members of the Hattiesburg Fire Department and Mississippi State Department of Health. From there, they were triaged into groups based on the severity of their injuries and transported to the hospital’s Emergency Department.

Each “victim,” was dressed out in full makeup depending on their wounds – broken bones, lacerations, head contusions – with injuries detailed on a red card they wore around their necks, which also included their vital statistics. In the ER alongside real-life patients seeking care, doctors, nurses, techs, respiratory therapists, and others worked to care for the wounded. Some were treated, bandaged up and released, while others were taken into surgery, being kept for several days, and unfortunately some didn’t make it.

Some of those portraying victims were students from the nursing and medical departments at the University of Southern Mississippi and William Carey University.

Gavin McClinton is a WCU nursing student, but also works as a tech at FGH. As a “45-year-old victim” of the chemical explosion, he suffered from severe chest pain, nausea, vomiting, and abrasions to bilateral arms and face. Observing the drill from the nursing aspect, McClinton hoped to see how the hospital operated under such a trauma – the stress and all that takes place. “I just want to see how everything operates and what it looks like in a real situation,” he said. “One day I might be in a situation like this.” He said in some of the work situations he’s already been a part of, he’s seen some of the symptoms he would be portraying during the drill.

After graduation in December, McClinton hopes to come back and work as a nurse in FGH’s Emergency Department, and maybe one day become a nurse practitioner. “Mainly, I just want to be here,” he said.

Ben Lee, another WCU nursing student, portrayed a 20-year-old with chemical exposure, and a fractured right arm with exposed bone. By participating in this drill, Lee hoped to get some experience and see how the medical staff handled a disaster situation. “I’m hoping this will help me to see how they operate,” he said.

WCU nursing student Grace Brumfield hopes to one day become a nurse practitioner. In Friday’s drill, she was a 25-year-old exposed to a chemical explosion experiencing shortness of breath, coughing up blood and bruised all over. “This is all new to me,” said Brumfield, who has never been in an accident. “I really just want to see what is going to happen around me and how everybody is going to react to it and what they are going to do. It also might give me experience for something I might encounter down the road. It will be interesting to see what the medical team is going to do, because that is going to teach me how to respond to a situation. I’m super excited about that.”

Another current FGH tech for three years, Sarah Anderson played a 24-year-old who had been exposed to the same explosion, but had been thrown from the blast. She had no movement below the neck and had second-degree burns to bilateral forearms and head.

Sarah hoped the drill would help her be able to critically think faster. “We are presented with different situations every day and what to do in those first seconds and minutes has a huge impact on people’s lives,” she said. “I hope to see how other people respond, the right way to do things, and explain how we can better do what we are doing to save people.” After December graduation from WCU, Sarah would like to start her career in FGH’s ER, and eventually go to nurse practitioner school. “But for now, I want to stay in the ER. I love the fast-paced ER environment,” she said.

Lauren Bell, MSN, RN, is an assistant professor of nursing at WCU and brought these students and about 40 others to Friday’s drill. Other than explosion victims, some played family members or spectators.

“We have a Community Health nursing course and with that course one of our topics we go over is disaster and what the community health nurse’s role is in disaster preparedness and response,” Bell said. “We brought our students here today to get a live view of what actually happens when you have a disaster, how to run through the whole process of getting them from being injured and triaged all the way to the ER.”

Bell hopes the disaster drill will help the students get an understanding of how important what they do in the classroom is and how they can bring that to life and how it is used in their practice every day.

“I think one of the things community nursing does is give our students a variety of experiences they might not know exists for nurses, because nursing offers such a wide variety of jobs you can do,” Bell said. “So, being out in the community and being a home health nurse or being part of disaster training are areas our students don’t always get to see when we take them to the hospital.”

Bell said she and the students had not done anything like this before. “We love the fact that Forrest General let us come and have this opportunity,” she said.

Whether through large-scale disaster drills, hosting students for clinicals, guiding them through radiology, ultrasound, and surgery programs, supporting the bridge from LPN to RN, or welcoming new physicians into our Family Medicine Practice Residency program, Forrest Health is committed to growing the next general of healthcare professionals throughout South Mississippi.

Because being rooted in care means more than responding when emergencies happen. It means preparing for them, teaching through them, and investing in the people who will one day lead them. By opening our doors and sharing real-world experience, we are planting seeds of knowledge, confidence, and compassion that will strengthen healthcare in our communities for years to come.

For more information, visit forresthealth.org.