It's not a bad word actually. Or term. Crisis actor (aka actor-patient or actor victim) is a trained actor, role player, volunteer, or other person engaged to portray a disaster victim during emergency drills to train first responders such as police, firefighters or EMT personnel. Crisis actors are used to create high-fidelity simulations of disasters in order to allow first responders to practice their skills and help state and local emergency services to prepare and train in realistic scenarios as part of full-scale disaster exercises. But the word's been overused.
