Disaster Preparedness Training for Emergency Medicine Residents Using a Tabletop Exercise

Area of Science:

• Emergency Medicine
• Disaster Preparedness
• Medical Education

Background:

• Emergency medicine (EM) physicians are crucial in community disaster response.
• Disaster management is a core competency for EM physicians as per the American Board of EM.
• Effective training in disaster scenarios is essential for EM residents.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a low-cost, feasible tabletop exercise for training EM residents in disaster management.
• To assess the impact of the exercise on residents' medical knowledge and confidence in managing disaster incidents.

Main Methods:

• A 2-hour tabletop exercise was conducted during resident didactic time.
• The exercise included lectures on incident command system (ICS) and triage, followed by scenario-based problem-solving.
• Residents completed pre- and post-exercise online assessments to evaluate knowledge and confidence.

Main Results:

• Eighteen residents participated, with response rates of 76% (pre) and 72% (post).
• No statistically significant difference was found in the medical knowledge component of the survey.
• A statistically significant increase in residents' perceived confidence in managing disaster incidents was observed.

Conclusions:

• A simple, adaptable tabletop exercise provides a practical option for introductory disaster preparedness training.
• Disaster management concepts are challenging to teach and assess but vital for EM physicians-in-training.