Comparing Tabletop and High-Fidelity Simulation for Disaster Medicine Training in Emergency Medicine Residents

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Disaster Medicine
• Emergency Medicine

Background:

• Effective disaster medicine education is crucial for emergency medicine residents.
• Traditional methods require evaluation for optimal preparedness.
• Tabletop exercises (TTX) and high-fidelity in-person simulations (IPS) are two key educational modalities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the effectiveness of TTX versus IPS in improving knowledge, confidence, and preparedness for disaster medicine.
• To assess resident outcomes in simulated mass casualty incident (MCI) scenarios.

Main Methods:

• A prospective, randomized educational intervention involving 63 emergency medicine residents across two programs.
• Residents were assigned to either TTX or IPS groups, completing pre- and post-intervention assessments.
• Paired 2-tailed Student's t-test was used for statistical analysis with significance defined as P < 0.01.

Main Results:

• Both TTX and IPS groups showed increased self-reported confidence and knowledge in managing MCIs.
• TTX participants achieved higher median post-test scores (77.4%) compared to IPS participants (67.4%).
• The difference in scores between the two groups was not statistically significant (P = 0.079).

Conclusions:

• TTX is an effective method for disaster medicine education, yielding outcomes comparable to IPS.
• While TTX excels in knowledge-based learning, IPS is vital for practicing real-time, high-stress decision-making.
• Integrating both TTX and IPS may offer comprehensive disaster scenario training, addressing both knowledge and psychological preparedness.