title: High-fidelity multiactor emergency preparedness training for patient care providers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Providing comprehensive emergency preparedness training (EPT) for patient care providers is important to the future success of emergency preparedness operations in the United States. Disasters are rare, complex events involving many patients and environmental factors that are difficult to reproduce in a training environment. Few EPT programs possess both competency-driven goals and metrics to measure life-saving performance during a multiactor simulated disaster.
  
  
  METHODS
  The development of an EPT curriculum for patient care providers-provided first to medical students, then to a group of experienced disaster medical providers-that recreates a simulated clinical disaster using a combination of up to 15 live actors and six high-fidelity human simulators is described. Specifically, the authors detail the Center for Health Professional Training and Emergency Response's (CHPTER's) 1-day clinical EPT course including its organization, core competency development, medical student self-evaluation, and course assessment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two 1-day courses hosted by CHPTER were conducted in a university simulation center. Students who completed the course improved their overall knowledge and comfort level with EPT skills.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The authors believe this is the first published description of a curriculum method that combines high-fidelity, multiactor scenarios to measure the life-saving performance of patient care providers utilizing a clinical disaster scenario with > 10 patients at once. A larger scale study, or preferably a multicenter trial, is needed to further study the impact of this curriculum and its potential to protect provider and patient lives.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Lancer A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: P Tim
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Maddux
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schnellmann
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hayes
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tolley
authors.forename: Amy E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Wahlquist
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000379:methods*; D040381:Education, Public Health Professional / Q000379:methods; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000379:methods*; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education*; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training / Q000379:methods*; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D016544:Patient Simulation; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011634:Public Health / Q000193:education; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States