Abstrakt

Educational approaches to mass casualty incidents

Ahmedul Abdul Alhari

The need for well-trained health care providers is paramount. Undoubtedly, in mass casualty events, the scene of a real incident is not an appropriate place to learn. Thus, clinical care for mass casualty incidents (MCIs) victims and scene management procedures must be preplanned and practiced pre-incident to be able to achieve the optimum outcomes. Hence, training must be a priority in any planning and response strategy. Around the globe exercises and simulations are the most accepted training methodologies to train emergency responders for mass casualty incidents (Legemaate, Burkle, & Bierens, 2012). Drills that simulate real incidents are commonly used to improve disaster preparedness and to allow for system evaluation in terms of capacity and capability. Even though with the best technology and simulations, incidents that occurred will be different from what has been exercised. Sten Lennquist (2012), has raised doubts about whether actions and decisions will be the same in an actual event. Training to be effective it must be both theoretical and practical; the use of simulation models offers the opportunity to integrate theory and practice (Perry & Lindell, 2003). Macnaughton, emphasizes that in disaster or MCIs management, there is a need to be "trained", rather than being "educated". Health educators have to recognize the differences between education and training in medical education (Macnaughton, 2000). Whereas, education is a process of having a broad perspective on what is taught, while training tends to be more focused. Yet, learning from the science of disaster medicine education literature still overlooked (Kaji, Coates, & Fung, 2010; S. Lennquist, 2005; Mortelmans, Dieltiens, Anseeuw, & Sabbe, 2014). Another challenge to mass casualty training is the infrequency of its occurrence which triggers the need for periodic training of those likely involved; to sharpen their skills and knowledge to the point where they will act in an autonomic manner should the need arise (Risavi, Terrell, Lee, & Holsten, 2013). This periodic training has proved to be effective when preparing for other complex tasks and when procedural skills are likely to be forgotten over a short time-frame (Ginzburg & Dar?El, 2000).