We knew we were going to experience a simulation and that it was going to test how we responded to stress. It is such a relief to know that I remained calm, was alert and able to process information and make decisions quickly. Not everyone in the group responded that way, some people really shut down. I found myself making a mental check list to make sure everything was getting addressed. Things I thought about were; was someone checking in on the others, who was our leader, did we have any supplies, what information did we know, how many people were outside, etc. During this whole time I never once thought about my family. I know that sounds horrible but I couldn't go there, it would have made the situation worse.
One leader never surfaced and in hind sight, that might have hurt us. I did ask who was the leader, but didn't push it. Maybe I should have? There were about 2-3 men at different points who took the lead and made decisions. I felt like they listened to my input and I wasn't offended by their desire to protect the women. I wonder if we could have done things differently, what would have happened if we did this or that. The purpose wasn't to show us what the right outcome was but to evaluate our response. A few key take home points; we made decisions based on the information we had available to us at the time and maybe in scenarios like this, there is no right decision. The purpose was look at how we responded to stress and work on those skills, not the decisions we made. And most importantly, this wasn't real. After our debriefing yesterday we had the rest of the day off.
Our evening was much more relaxing. We did a little shopping, watched a chick flick, ate snacks and laughed. It was the perfect ending to a very stressful day.
