Development of an interactive curriculum and trainee-specific preparedness plan for emergency medicine residents

OBJECTIVES: To create an interactive mass casualty incident (MCI) curriculum for emergency medicine residents and to integrate them into the hospital disaster response, thereby creating a “trainee-specific emergency preparedness plan.” METHODS: We created an interactive MCI curriculum and “trainee-specific emergency preparedness plan” for emergency medicine residents. The curriculum consisted of lectures, a small focus group, a triage activity, and the designation of a resident disaster champion to collaborate with hospital leadership to implement a “trainee-specific emergency preparedness plan” for the upcoming hospital disaster drill. RESULTS: Residents gave positive feedback on the new curriculum and retained information from the education. All resident teams accurately triaged at least 78% of the disaster scenarios. The residents also created a “trainee-specific emergency preparedness plan” for the upcoming hospital disaster drill, utilizing principles they learned from their MCI lessons. By allowing the residents to have an active role in the design and implementation of the new resident integrated disaster management plan, there was a general consensus of increased interest and retention of what was learned, as well as an increased comfort level in participating in MCI scenarios. Residents did not feel cursory to the planning; they became a part of the planning and felt more involved. Through this exercise, residents were able to give feedback to the hospital leadership that further shaped the disaster response plan. We also found that integration of the emergency medicine residents into the hospital response doubled the amount of active physicians available. CONCLUSION: An interactive-based MCI curriculum is more engaging and may foster more retention than the traditional lecture approach. Resident involvement in the hospital disaster response is paramount as more hospitals are becoming teaching hospitals and mass casualty incidents are inevitable.