Citation

Eastwood KW, Harris A, Armstrong JBP. CJEM 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1007/s43678-023-00601-3

PMID

37948002

Abstract

Mass-casualty incidents have a significant global impact. Despite calls for improved disaster-preparedness training, most medical curriculums do not include formal disaster-medicine education. In 2021, the Medical Council of Canada introduced new disaster-medicine learning objectives. This article presents a mass-casualty-incident course for 3rd-year Canadian medical students. The course includes lectures, and a large-scale simulation of an explosion scene, field triage zone, and simulated emergency department (ED). The simulation incorporated "Dark-team-member" facilitators and 17 live actor and 8 mannequin patients with moulage. Pre-/post-event evaluation data was collected. One-hundred and twenty medical students participated in the course. Confidence in managing a real mass-casualty incident, on a scale from 1 to 10 (no-confidence to completely confident) significantly improved based on a Mann-Whitney U test, p < 0.05. Few formal medical student mass-casualty-incident courses exist. Combining "Dark-team-members" with live actors, imbedding clinician facilitators with medical students, and having a simulation with a continuous disaster scene to the ED are unique to this course. The methodology is presented for future replication.

Language: en

Keywords

Education; Simulation; Curriculum development; Disaster medicine; Disaster medicine training; Emergency preparedness training; Health professional; Mass-casualty incident (MCI); Medical students