Pathfinder Exercise 2025 | written by Stuart C Vaughters and Sophie Flora-DeSart

Held in June on the Rock Creek campus of Portland Community College, this year Pathfinder was a single day exercise focusing on the foundational skills of an all-hazard mass casualty event. Participants received a half day of didactic training on topics such as Radio Communications, the En Route Patient Staging System (ERPSS), Patient Triage and Re-Triage for Transport, and a Burn Care Basics course. The afternoon consisted of a scenario-based, full-scale medical response drill designed to test medical response teams' ability to coordinate internally and conduct rapid triage of live and simulated patients.

In addition to State Managed Volunteer Pool (SMVP) members, participants this year included volunteers from the Oregon Disaster Medical Team (ODMT), the Department of Veterans Affairs, Portland Community College’s staff and students, Cascadia Moulage, and staff from the Health, Security, Preparedness and Response (HSPR) program of the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and the Public Health Director’s office, including OHA Public Health Director, Naomi Adeline-Biggs. We are so grateful for those who participated to enhance skills in rapid medical triage, treatment, and incident coordination for partners and the state's healthcare volunteer pool. These types of training events, and the learning mindset of our partners and volunteers bring us ever closer to being ready for whatever tomorrow brings.

Photos from Pathfinder 2025