Union University nursing students participate in "CERT" training

Jackson, TN. (WNBJ)-

Union University students are suiting up today, but not in their nursing scrubs. When people think of nurses, many picture them in a doctor’s office or maybe as a school nurse, but the job of a nurse can be a lot more than that. Mardy Clements (Retired Emergency Management Director) told 39 news, “the nurses could be called on to go anywhere at times they could volunteer, they could be called on to help in natural disasters. Like floods, hurricane areas, and stuff. We need medical personnel.”

Mardy Clement is a retired emergency management director, who helps prepare the students for all kinds of emergencies. Union University requires the nursing students to train with the fire department as a part of their community health class curriculum. Ellen Cali (Union University Student) informed us, “we’re just learning how when there's a disaster or when or emergency how we can be useful in those situations and help protect the community as nurses.”

The nurses receive this training under a program called "CERT" which stands for…Mardy Clements (Retired Emergency Management Director) stated, “community emergency response team it was developed so that the good neighbors that want to get out and help can be trained so that they can help properly. A good cert team can come out and help first responders.”

This 40-hour class can be very intense. Ellen Cali (Union University Student) emphasized, “they have this really cool virtual fire where you can practice with an extinguisher virtually. So, we’ve done that we crawled through some houses. We got to go through a smoke room. So all types of cool things.”

I even got the chance to suit up and take part in the activities myself, and it certainly gave me a greater appreciation of what these nurses have to endure for certification, and during these times of covid, seeing the intensity of this behind the scenes training can only help us all appreciate all our healthcare workers even more.

Makayla Davis

mdavis@nbc39tv.com