What is it about?
Large-scale simulations help healthcare systems to prepare to face mass-casualty events such as natural disasters or terror attacks. Concerns have been voiced regarding the negative experience of people who play victims in these scenarios - called "simulated victims." To what extent does playing the victim of a disaster lead people to feel like one? Using survey data from 90 people who played the role of victims with physical and/or psychological symptoms during terror-attack simulations, we outline that their experience could indeed match that of real-life victims. Based on these results, we provide practical advice for organizers and healthcare professionals as to how to improve their experience. We also discuss how taking an interest in it may improve the quality of simulations - and eventually, help us understand true victims better.
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Why is it important?
Whether natural or not, disasters with the potential to overwhelm emergency services have never been so frequent. True-to-life, large-scale simulations (sometimes involving hundreds of people) have become the tool of choice to prepare systems and people to face the underlying challenges. Our work is the first to shine a spotlight on the experience of simulated victims and what it can teach us. Considering their engagement in the training of healthcare professionals, making sure their participation doesn't take a significant toll on their health seems paramount. From an organizational perspective, their experiences provide grounded feedback regarding quality of care - and areas wherein healthcare professionals may need more training. Finally, their feelings may be a window into how real victims experience care and its implications. In their experience thus lies the groundwork for designing better immediate care for victims of future disasters.
Perspectives
The impossibly large stakes of these simulations explains why they are often analyzed through the scope of training ("Was the simulation a good training opportunity?") or logistics ("Did the system react the way it was supposed to?"). As a psychologist, it was especially rewarding to approach it differently, and illustrate once again that - more often than you would think - there is a great deal to learn by simply asking people how they feel. Beyond ensuring the well-being of the people involved, the perspective of using simulation as a sandbox to help real victims of disasters in the future is especially enticing to me. Think about it: how can we ethically and feasibly study how victims experience being taken care of after a disaster? It is a striking question, and I truly hope our work showcases the promise of simulation in that context.
Jean-Félix Hamel
Universite Francois-Rabelais de Tours
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Simulated mass casualty events: Advocating real care for simulated victims., Psychological Trauma Theory Research Practice and Policy, July 2025, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/tra0002005.
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