NATIONWIDE SIMULTANEOUS EARTHQUAKE DRILL        

             With the leadership of SDRRM Coordinator, Sir Jefferson C. Gonzales, teachers and        students of Dr. Ramon de Santos National High School gathered together for the 1st Quarter        Nationwide Simultaneous Earthquake Drill held at the Cayetano Gymnasium on June 29, 2017, (Thursday) at 2:00 - 4:00 in the afternoon.

Every year, the school organizes program like this twice a year as a compliance with the DepEd Memorandum Order. It aims to continually educate the students on basic safety measures before, during and after the occurrence of a disaster, earthquake in particular.

The lecture was divided into two discussions: What to Do Before, During and After the Earthquake and First-Aid.

Sir Gil G. Darang discussed the Safety Measures on What to Do Before, During and After an earthquake. Some of the safety tips shared were:  secure the strength of the house, avoid putting glass jars on top of cabinets, tie hanged picture frames, place heavy objects on the floor, fix       electrical damaged wirings, and maintain supply of clean water and food.

During the earthquake, he emphasized the application of duck, cover and hold. Duck, cover and hold reduces the tendency of being injured seriously.  Volunteer students demonstrated it for the audience.

Lastly, he advised the students to move to the evacuation area after making sure that the quake is over.  Students are oriented on where the evacuation site near their rooms are located.

Ma’am Angela Austria, a Science teacher and a registered nurse lectured on Giving Proper First-Aid. There was a lecture on giving first-aid to open wounds, close wounds, exposed wounds, scalds, burn, faint, bleeding, and unconsciousness. 

Before that, she shared the characteristics of a rescuer.  These are the following: being     resourceful, tactful, caring, and sincere.  Resourcefulness allows the students to make use of the materials in the surrounding as emergency tools.  Tact makes the students’ words comforting to the patients.  Sincerity and being caring move the students to show compassion and to pay attention to the needy people.

In each emergency case, Ma’am Austria discussed the steps on know how to give             immediate response.  For example, scalds are treated by simply making it cold by placing it under a running water for ten minutes.  For burn, the students are advised not to do anything on the wound but simply removing the source of fire, then call a doctor or send the patient to the hospital.

In treating open wounds, it is very important to cover the wound with clean handkerchief or cloth to prevent infection. Before treating the patient, the injured part of the body must be placed flat on the surface. To reduce further injury, the rescuer should put a spleen or improvised materials on the injured body part.  She also added some tips called RICE method, R-est, I-ce, C-ompression, and E-levation. 

In bleeding, Ma’am Austria corrected the wrong notion that the patient must face the ceiling to avoid bleeding, instead, the patient must bend its head downward and press the nose tightly to put pressure on it.  The pressure stops the flow of blood.

The speaker also updated the audience on how to revive unconscious patient using CPR or Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation.  Before, a rescuer was allowed to give mouth to mouth             resuscitation during the process of administering it.  But now, only the chest compress must be done.  CPR is only done if the patient does not show any sign of breathing, either pulse or nose breathing.