Health and social care students experienced a day in the life of the emergency services when Telford College laid on a series of special interactive events and activities.
‘Health Professionals Day’ gave learners the chance to step into the shoes of emergency responders, to handle fictitious reports of a major disaster incident.
They also got to hear from a senior paramedic lecturer, and a former student who returned to campus to share her adult nursing experience.
The emergency services exercise was designed to promote a new degree-level course, BSc (Hons) Emergency and Disaster Management, launching in September.
It teaches the principles of emergency planning and policy – ideal for students aspiring to work as emergency responders, or within the business continuity field.
Heather Gumsley, a lecturer at Wolverhampton University, presented students with a fictitious emergency scenario, with reports of an explosion received in Telford.
Students were separated into groups and assigned ‘emergency responder’ status – as police officers, local authority members, fire officers or ambulance services staff – and provided with snippets of information to piece together.
The exercise was designed to demonstrate the importance of multi-agency co-operation. Heather explained: “It’s really important that students learn to communicate with different groups in order to resolve the problem.”
Emergency planning – students work out how to deal with the fictitious explosion
Katie Philips
Student Katie Philips, studying an Access to Higher Education health level three course, said: “The presentation gave me a real insight into the course and what happens in these situations – I’m really interested to find out more.”
The emergency planning theme continued with a visit from Wolverhampton University’s senior paramedic lecturer, Alex Westaway, who gave an insight into the day-to-day life of a paramedic.
He detailed incidents he has attended, his route into the industry, and how students can follow in his footsteps, taking them through the process of writing their personal statement and applying to university, and describing the pathways to explore.
“It’s really exciting to hopefully encourage young people into such a life-changing profession,” Alex said.
Senior paramedic lecturer Alex Westaway
