Disaster 101: a novel approach to disaster medicine training for health professionals.
BACKGROUND
Despite efforts to improve preparedness training for health professionals, disaster medicine remains a peripheral component of traditional medical education in the United States (US) and is a rarely studied topic in the medical literature.


OBJECTIVE
Using a pre-/post-test design, we measured the extent to which 4(th)-year medical students perceive, rapidly learn, and apply basic concepts of disaster medicine via a novel curriculum.


METHODS
Via a modified Delphi technique, an expert curriculum panel developed a 90-min didactic training scenario and two 40-min training exercises for medical students: a hazardous material scene and a surprise mass casualty incident (MCI) scenario with 100 life-sized mannequins. Medical students were quizzed before and after the didactic training scenario about their perceptions and their disaster medicine knowledge.


RESULTS
Students rated their overall knowledge as 3.76/10 pretest compared to 7.64/10 after the didactic program. Students' post-test scores improved by 54% and students participating in the MCI drill correctly tagged 94% of the victims in approximately 10 min. The average overall rating for the experience was 4.85/5.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this educational demonstration project reveal that students will value and can rapidly learn some core elements of disaster medicine via a novel addition to a medical school's curriculum. We believe the principle of a highly effective and well-received medical student course that can be easily added to a university curriculum has been demonstrated. Further research is needed to validate core competencies and performance-based education goals for US health professional trainees.
Scott
Lancer A
LA
Division of Emergency Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA.
Carson
Deborah S
DS
Greenwell
I Brian
IB
D003479:Curriculum; D054597:Disaster Medicine / Q000193:education*; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008348:Manikins; D054527:Mass Casualty Incidents