Sort, Assess, Life-Saving Intervention, Triage With Drone Assistance in Mass Casualty Simulation: Analysis of Educational Efficacy

Introduction Mass casualty incident (MCI) simulation and triage are educational methods used to provide high fidelity training to first response teams. Simulation and triage need to be as effective as possible to train professionals for true emergencies involving mass casualty. Although MCI simulation and triage have been used in the pre-professional setting (i.e. medical school, nursing school, etc.), more data is required regarding quality improvement of these simulations. This study focuses on quality improvement of MCI simulation and triage in the pre-professional training. In order to evaluate simulation quality to optimize future triage simulations, this study had three specific aims: (1) assess participant accuracy of triage after training in Sort, Assess, Life-Saving Interventions, Triage/Transport (SALT); (2) evaluate the role of stress and confidence in participants of triage simulation; (3) determine trainees’ perception of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) in the setting of mass casualty simulation. Methods A total of 44 attendees of the University of Central Florida (UCF) College of Medicine Global Health Conference participated in this study across three groups. Each group was provided a 15-minute lecture on SALT protocol. After the training, the participants continued to a 30-minute simulation in which they were asked to accurately triage up to 46 patient-actors. Each participants’ triage designations were compared to the previously assigned designations of each patient-actor. Pre- and post-simulation surveys were collected and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) (IBM Corp., Chicago, IL). All other data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Qualitative and Likert data for the simulation were collected from 44 participants. Given a total of 1,113 triage scores (average of 25.29 triage designations per person), there was data to support that novice learners in this study tended to under-triage using the SALT protocol after 15-minute SALT training, with an overall accuracy of 52.43%. Survey data showed that confidence in mass casualty triage improved post-simulation, improving from median 3/10 to 5/10. Most participants were unaware of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in MCI but most had positive opinions of their usefulness in MCI after the simulation, with a median score of 8/10. Conclusions Participant accuracy of triage after undergoing a 15-minute training in SALT triage was 52.43%, with a non-statistically significant tendency to under-triage. This accuracy level is consistent with other studies of SALT triage in MCI, but the tendency to undertriage requires further study for validation. Stress levels during the simulation were significantly elevated, while post-simulation confidence increased significantly from pre-simulation. The perception of drone utility in MCI was favorable among participants in this study, indicating drones may be useful for first response teams in future mass casualty simulations.