A simulated mass casualty incident unfolded at BYU’s Martin Building (MARB) as part of a drill designed to prepare emergency medical technicians and nurses for real-world emergencies.
Around 100 student volunteers acted as victims of a fictional shooting — complete with fake wounds, trauma tags and staged chaos in an effort to replicate the emotional and logistical strain of mass casualty incidents.
The Emergency Medical Services (EMS) team at BYU was not informed where or when the drill would take place. All they knew was that it would occur somewhere on BYU campus on Saturday, April 12. Eliza McDonald, EMS public relations specialist, said that’s part of what makes the exercise so powerful.
“We keep it a secret until the day of so it’s more realistic for our EMTs,” McDonald said. “This kind of drill helps everyone be better prepared for real-life incidents that we hope will never happen.”
Still, she added, hope alone won’t cut it. According to McDonald, the drills on BYU campus are some of the largest simulations in the nation. She even compared them to the drills the U.S. military performs.
Participants in the simulation were given fake injury descriptions ahead of time, which described how to act. Then makeup artists from BYU’s makeup design program created realistic bullet wounds, scratches and bruises to bring the scene to life.
At exactly 2 p.m., the screaming began inside the MARB. Actors were told to “make it real,” and their cries played in the background as faux dispatch calls flooded into BYU EMS.
Callers posed as students, parents and members of the press, all simulating the frantic urgency of an actual mass shooting. The goal: to test the dispatch station’s response in the midst of chaos.
When EMTs arrived, the first sweep began. Students were tagged with colored ribbons based on injury severity — green, yellow, red or black.
"Green means you're stable and can walk," explained Celia Taylor, a fifth-year nursing student in charge of coordinating the nurses. "Yellow might mean a minor wound or abnormal vitals, while red means immediate treatment is needed. Black tags are for the deceased or those unlikely to survive."
A second wave of EMTs entered the building to transport victims to their designated triage areas. While the EMTs took whoever they found first, their main priority was getting students with red ribbons out of the building to get them expedited care and treatment.
Once they were out of the building, nurses worked with EMTs to revive students. Taylor explained why collaboration was key.
“We’ve got student nurses here because we can start IVs and push meds,” Taylor said. “There’s obviously an overlap between our skill sets, but there are a few things that we can do that they can’t.”
Once students were treated on either the green, yellow or red tarps, they were transferred to a mock emergency room in the basement of the Kimball Tower. There, they were given more intense treatment as needed.
Throughout the drill, EMTs and nurses communicated fluidly, exchanging badge numbers, giving protocol steps and reading each other’s moves.
“There’s just a lot of respect between the nursing students and the EMTs right now,” Taylor said. “Like you can see it. Everyone’s working together.”
For many students, the experience was intense, even though they knew it was a drill.
“Last time, it was a bomb. This time it was a shooter,” BYU student, Allison Louthan, said. “It was still scary. I tried to imagine what it would feel like to actually be shot.”
The overall consensus among “patients” was that the EMTs and nurses handled the simulation with care and professionalism. Stephanie Campbell, who had acted in past drills, noted that while this one felt slightly less traumatic, it was still just as effective.
“They did really well,” Campbell said. “They did a great job of being very responsive.”
Some EMTs, however, were more critical. Ryan Huber is a BYU EMT who has done the drill six times.
“I felt like it was a little bit all over the place at first, but then we got it together,” he said.
The drill was run twice on the same day to work on any critiques that they found during the first simulation. Immediately after the first drill, EMTs met together to discuss what went well and what had to be worked on.
“We talked about getting more critical patients out and taken to the hospital first, because at the end of the drill, we only had red patients left,” McDonald said. “We should have the reds out first.”
Simultaneously, the “patients” met together to discuss what they felt went well and what needed to be worked on in the next drill. Some of these critiques included not being brought out early enough, being left on a tarp for too long or not being transferred to the ER.
The team hopes to continue refining the exercise in future semesters and encourages more student volunteers to participate in roles both as EMTs and as actors simulating victims.
