Disaster Day

Disaster Day

By: Tori Chambers, Texas A&M University 

Each year, Texas A&M University hosts the nation’s largest student-led interprofessional emergency response simulation, known as Disaster Day. This event allows students from the colleges of Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacy, Public Health, Nursing, and Medicine to collaborate with the Corps of Cadets and the Texas State Guard to practice emergency response on a grand scale.

Each year, there is a unique catastrophe presented for students to manage. Last year’s simulation was an earthquake that resulted building collapses and a train derailment; the year before was a research plant explosion that devastated the entire neighborhood. With actors covered in makeup and bandages as well as first responders, hard-hats, and mock animal cases, this disaster teaches students the appropriate response skills needed for such situations and allows them to learn the interprofessional channels of communication required when an entire community is affected by crisis.

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AVMF Disaster Relief Grant

AVMF Disaster Relief Grants are for the purpose of assisting veterinarians and veterinary students who have experienced an emergency need for basic necessities due to a disaster. Up to $2,000 may be issued per grantee for out-of-pocket expenses incurred immediately following the disaster. A disaster would include, but is not limited to, flooding, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires or oil spills in an area that has been declared a disaster area at the local, county, state or federal level.

Click here to apply.

Students at Oregon State learn how to rescue horses from ravines, and much more!

Editors note: SAVMA's Public Health and Community Outreach Committee offers a grant every spring to a veterinary school that is hosting a disaster preparedness activity.  The latest winner of the grant was Oregon State University. Read below to hear more about their event, and if you are interested in funding for a disaster preparedness activity at your own school, please contact the Public Health committee at savma.phcoc@gmail.com

Oregon Veterinary Students participating in a disaster preparedness course spponsored by SAVMA's Public Health and Community Outreach Committee

By: Ashley Galen
Oregon State University, Class of 2013

Last summer I participated in an externship at a local equine practice where I met Dr. Shannon Findley, a recent graduate of UC Davis with a lot of enthusiasm for equine emergency response.  During veterinary school she took courses in large animal rescue and participated in their Veterinary Emergency Response Team (VERT).  Her drive to spread awareness to clients and fellow aid workers, veterinarians and firemen alike, showed me how important it is to be prepared for emergency situations.  

This drove me to set up an SC-AAEP workshop at Oregon State on equine emergency response, focusing on what can be done in an average practice to be prepared for a disaster of any magnitude.

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