Bridging the Gap: Utilization of Data Trends to Understand Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management Training...

The frequency of disaster and emergency events continues to rise. Despite this, healthcare staff report a lack of emergency preparedness knowledge and training. Therefore, this study aims to understand the professional backgrounds of students enrolled in healthcare emergency management training, with the goal of highlighting enrollment trends to better utilize resources and expand training opportunities.

Over two thousand data points were retrospectively collected from emergency management course registrations. Occupational backgrounds were categorized for ease of analysis. Test of associations between occupation and course enrollment were based on the chi-square test.

Non-clinical professionals were significantly more likely to be enrolled in emergency management courses than clinical professionals. Of the clinical professionals, nurses represented the highest rates of enrollment, while physicians had the lowest enrollment rates, representing less than 2% of the data set.

This study demonstrates that occupation is correlated to variances in emergency management course enrollment. Additionally, there is a lack of clinical professionals adequately trained in disaster response, especially physicians. Thoughtfully designed emergency management courses tailored to different professional roles could be a key strategy for improving enrollment.