Research Team 2
Senior Project
Located in Detroit, Michigan, at Wayne State University. We are a group of seniors that have examined and worked with medical professionals to understand the retention of emergency bleed control training given through the U.S. Department of Defense’s Stop the Bleed program. In the event of a mass casualty incident such as a school shooting, it is important and beneficial.
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Our team is a part of a bigger team of roughly 20 additional students that are majoring in communication studies. All of the students worked under our professor Dr. Tong and Teaching Assistant, Professor Kelsey Mesmer for the duration of the winter semester of 2020.
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The primary goal of this study was to examine the benefits (increased feelings of preparedness) and costs (increased psychological fear) of participating in bleed control courses. The secondary goal was to examine how knowledgeable Wayne State undergraduate students were about current emergency response and safety procedures that the university was prepared to enact in the event a mass casualty incident occurring on campus. Despite the growing number of proposed classes, the actual efficacy of such in-person trainings has yet to be evaluated.
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Our class had 3 outcomes, shown below, that we wanted to achieve during this 16-week course.
Aim 1: A baseline assessment of students' current levels of emergency preparedness. Our class measured students' feelings of fear, anxiety of mass shooting, their current feelings of emergency preparedness, their knowledge of current protocols and programs that Wayne State has aimed at maximizing campus safety. To achieve Aim 1, an online pretest is administered prior to any emergency preparedness training.
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Aim 2: To examine the benefits and psychological consequences of bleeding control classes. Hypothesized benefits include increased feelings of preparedness and safety among students; psychological consequence is include increased fear, anxiety over a mass shooting event taking place at Wayne State. We will assess the effects of Stop the Bleed courses on both benefits and consequences with a posttest survey administered immediately after the bleed control training. To achieve Aim 1, we will compare pretest and posttest #1 measures.
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Aim 3: Our final aim is to examine how long perceived benefits (feelings of preparedness) and psychological effects (increased fear of shooting event) last among a sample of Wayne State undergraduate students. In a follow-up survey, we administer repeated measures of the same outcome variables and a physical reassessment of tourniquet application in week 14 of the semester.
