CERT San Diego (Community Emergency Response Team)

CERT San Diego puts on live action drills at the end of each academy to give academy graduates a chance to practice the new skills they learned during the academy.  The role a Volunteer Patient is very important because it provide a new layer of complexity for new CERT San Diego graduates. 

We welcome kids 13 and above to participate (anyone under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian) and can provide a certificate for the time they participated.  Groups such as Girl and Boy Scouts, sports teams, and after school programs are ideal.  

Here is what an average drill day looks like for our Volunteer Patient participants:

Arrive at 9:00am:  Volunteer Patients arrive, sign in, and have moulage make up applied to simulate various injuries and given a script on how to behave based on their injury.  Application takes about 15 minutes per person.  Small snacks, waters and juice are provided.  Be prepared to wait--bring a phone charger, extra snacks, or a book to occupy your time.   Wait times vary based on the number of Volunteer Patients and the number of moulage artists we have.

10:30am:  Volunteer Pictims are taken to their disaster location.  It is important Volunteer Patients stay in the assigned location.  

11:00am:  The drill starts, the graduates should arrive quickly, conduct a search, then rescue Volunteer Patients, and finally provide treatment.  If graduates do this quickly, we will reset the disaster location, re-stage the Volunteer Patients, and run the drill again.  We may also change or expand the disaster locations.

Between 1 and 2pm:  The drill ends.  Volunteer Patients are welcome to join the graduates and firefighters in Building 608 for pizza, cake, and to provide feedback to students about what you experienced while being rescued and treated.  *If Volunteer Patients choose to leave at the end of the exercise and not participate in the graduation ceremony, they must still go to Building 608 in order to sign out and receive their letters or signatures for participation.    

3pm - 4pm:  The graduation ceremony should be completed, all volunteer victims should sign out, and this will end the day.  

*Please note these times are estimates.  As with any large event responding to a disaster, many factors can impact the timing.  Volunteer Patients are able to excuse themselves at any time, but must *ALWAYS* notify the CERT Program manager and sign out before leaving the facility.