NORWICH – UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital’s Nursing Professional Development Specialist, Lynn Drake, RN, and nursing staff member, Cindie Palmer, HCA, both members of the hospital’s decontamination team are being recognized for completing a week long Department of Homeland Security emergency preparedness training course.

The course they completed, the Hospital Emergency Response Training (HERT) for Mass Casualties, is available to healthcare professionals and first responders nationally, and was offered by the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP), in Anniston, Alabama.

The program’s main focus was to help prepare both Lynn and Cindie to provide safe and effective emergency medical response to victims during a mass casualty or decontamination event, while also protecting the hospital and staff from becoming contaminated themselves during such an event.

While in Alabama, Drake and Palmer participated in two full scale intense exercises involving decontaminating procedures, while at the same time providing medical care to approximately 40 victims in the first exercise and 80 victims in the second.

At the end of the program the two participated in teaching back to the other 33 program participants a portion of the class material in order to obtain their “Train the Trainer” certificate.