WED-007 - Training healthcare students for emergency preparedness and response

Brief Abstract Summary: Explore the unique challenges of emergency preparedness and response in the rural setting. The rural setting poses some unique challenges due to a geographically dispersed population, lower socio-economic status, weaker infrastructure, and fewer healthcare providers. A rural community partnership was formed to prepare young adult medical students in emergency preparedness and response. An evidence-based, workshop-style training program that included a large-scale, rural-focused, mass casualty incident (MCI) drill, was implemented by public health agencies, community agencies, and academic medicine. While participant self- confidence in response did not significantly improve, their willingness to respond did, and a successful MCI was conducted. In rural communities, local citizens and neighbors will likely be the first to respond to a disaster. Future training courses should emphasize increased engagement from local community residents, outside of the core training partnership.

Detailed abstract description: Explore the unique challenges of emergency preparedness and response in the rural setting. The rural setting poses some unique challenges due to a geographically dispersed population, lower socio-economic status, weaker infrastructure, and fewer healthcare providers. Therefore, a “whole community approach” to disaster preparedness and response is used to address needs. Research has shown that in-person, collaborative workshops and community-wide disaster drill exercises are the most consistently effective methods for a whole community approach. A rural community partnership was formed to prepare young adult medical students in emergency preparedness and response. The collaboration included the community’s academic, public health, emergency management, and healthcare partners. An evidence-based, workshop-style training program was implemented that included a large-scale mass casualty incident (MCI) drill (with a focus on the rural area and rural issues) as the culminating experience. Specifically, as part of this training partnership program, medical students collaborated with academic, healthcare, and various community organizations to improve their self-efficacy and willingness to respond to an emergency, and conduct a collaborative, community-wide MCI drill. The training program, exercises, and drill had a rural focus as the scenarios, demonstrations, and skill stations were set in remote or rural areas, rural providers instructed the course, and rural-focused barriers to planning and response were role-played. Although participant self-confidence in response did not significantly improve, their willingness to respond did significantly improve, and a collaborative, community-wide mass casualty drill was successfully conducted. In rural communities, due to their low population density and open lands, local citizens and neighbors are likely the first to respond to a disaster, indicating a strong need for their participation in training and response. For future training courses, MCI drill planning and implementation, and collaborative partnerships for disaster preparedness, it is recommended that increased local community engagement, outside of the core training partnership, be emphasized.