The Critical Need for Disaster Medicine in Modern Medical Education.

Current escalation of natural disasters, pandemics, and humanitarian crises underscores the pressing need for inclusion of disaster medicine in medical education frameworks. Conventional medical training often lacks adequate focus on the complexities and unique challenges inherent in such emergencies. This discourse advocates for the integration of disaster medicine into medical curricula, highlighting the imperative to prepare health-care professionals for an effective response in challenging environments. These competencies encompass understanding mass casualty management, ethical decision-making amidst resource constraints, and adapting health-care practices to varied emergency contexts. Therefore, we posit that equipping medical students with these specialized skills and knowledge is vital for health-care delivery in the face of global health emergencies.

Pediatric disaster preparedness curriculum across emergency medicine residencies.

OBJECTIVE: To assess pediatric disaster medicine (PDM) instruction in emergency medicine (EM) residency programs and to identify barriers to integrating these skills into EM training. METHODS: National survey study of United States EM Residency Program Directors (PDs) and Assistant PDs during the 2021-2022 academic year. RESULTS: Of the 186 EM residency programs identified, a total of 24 responses were recorded with a response rate of 12.9 percent. Importance of training was rated 5.79 (standard deviation 2.51) using the Likert scale ranging from 1 to 10. Out of 24 programs, 17 (70.8 percent) do not have any PDM training as part of residency training. Live drill, simulation, and tabletop were identified as most effective methods to deliver PDM training with the Likert scale score of 4.78, 4.6, and 4.47, respectively. Senior trainees' level of -knowledge/skills with family reunification (Likert 2.09/5; chemical-biological-radiological-nuclear explosive 2.95/5) and mass casualty preparation of the emergency department (3.3/5) as assessed by the respondents. The main barrier to education included logistics, eg, space and costs (Likert 3.7/5), lack of didactic time (3.7/5), and limited faculty knowledge, skill, or experience (3.3/5). CONCLUSION: PDM training is lacking and requires standardization. This study highlights the opportunity for the creation of a model for EM resident education in PDM.

Components of an Updated Disaster Medicine Curriculum Included in Emergency Medicine Residency and Emergency Medical Services Fellowship in the United States.

INTRODUCTION: Disaster medicine (DM) is a unique field that has undergone significant development as disaster events become increasingly complicated to respond to. However, DM is not recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) or Accreditation Committee of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), and therefore lacks board certification. Furthermore, prior studies have shown that there is unique body of DM knowledge not being addressed in emergency medicine (EM) residency or Emergency Medical Services (EMS) fellowship, resulting in fundamental DM topics not being covered amongst graduate medical education (GME) programs most prepared to produce DM physicians. A recently published DM core curriculum addresses this knowledge gap and seeks to promote standardization of DM training. STUDY OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to analyze EM residency and EMS fellowship curricula for the inclusion of DM major curriculum topics and subtopics, using the most recently published DM core curriculum as a control. METHODS: Both EM residency and EMS fellowship curricula were analyzed for inclusion of DM curriculum topics and subtopics, using the DM curriculum recommendations published by Wexler, et al as a control. A major curriculum topic was deemed covered if at least one related subtopic was described in the curricula. The included and excluded DM topics and subtopics were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: While all the DM major curriculum topics were covered by either EM residency or EMS fellowship, EMS fellowship covered more major curriculum topics (14/15; 93%) than EM residency (12/15; 80%) and EMS fellowship covered more DM curriculum subtopics (58/153; 38%) than EM residency (24/153; 16%). Combined, EM residency and EMS fellowship covered 65 out of 153 (42%) of the DM curriculum subtopics. CONCLUSION: Although this study finds that all the DM major curriculum topics will be covered in EM residency followed by EMS fellowship, over one-half of the subtopics are not covered by either program (16% and 38%, respectively) or both programs combined (42%). Increasingly relevant subtopics, such as climate change, droughts, and flooding, are amongst those not covered by either curriculum. Even amongst the DM topics included in GME curricula, an emphasis on themes such as mass treatment, preparedness, and mitigation is likely under-represented. Accreditation from ACGME for DM fellowship would further promote uniform implementation of the updated core curriculum and ensure optimal training of disaster-ready physicians.

Adaptando o currículo para atender a necessidades de profissionais de saúde em um desastre: uma proposta para enfermeiras brasileiras / Adaptando el currículo para atender a necesidades de profesionales de salud en un desastre: una propuesta para enfermeras brasileñas / Tailoring curricula to fit health professionals needs in a disaster: a proposal for Brazilian nurses

RESUMO Introdução Educação e capacitação são os pilares da preparação para os desastres e melhores currículos e programas de treinamento são baseados em competências. Objetivo Este artigo apresenta uma proposta para ser aplicada ao currículo de enfermagem no Brasil, baseada nas Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais e nas recomendações para a integração de habilidades e competências no currículo de graduação propostas pela Organização Mundial da Saúde. Resultados Foi realizada uma comparação de referenciais de competências para indicar as competências específicas essenciais para enfermeiras brasileiras. Níveis de proficiência foram indicados para o estabelecimento de objetivos educacionais e experiências de aprendizado e instrumentos de avaliação recomendados da literatura. Conclusões As competências constituem o início da discussão que deverá ocorrer em cada escola de enfermagem para que todas as enfermeiras brasileiras estejam preparadas para o caso de um desastre ocorrer.

RESÚMEN Introducción Educación y capacidad son los pilares de la preparación para los desastres y mejores currículos y programas de entrenamiento son basados en competencias. Objetivo Este artículo presenta una propuesta para ser aplicada al currículo de enfermería en Brasil, basada en las Directrices Curriculares Nacionales y en las recomendaciones para la integración de habilidades y competencias en el currículo de grado propuestas por la Organización Mundial de la Salud. Resultados Se realizó una comparación de referenciales de competencias para indicar aquellas específicas esenciales para enfermeras brasileñas. Niveles de competencia fueran indicados para el establecimiento de objetivos educacionales e experiencias de aprendizaje e instrumentos de evaluación recomendados por la literatura. Conclusiones Las competencias constituyen el inicio de la discusión que deberá ocurrir en cada escuela de enfermería para que todas las enfermeras brasileñas estén preparadas para el caso de un desastre ocurrir.

ABSTRACT Introduction Education and training are the cornerstones of disaster preparedness and best curricula and training programs are competency-based. Objective This paper presents a proposal to be applied in nursing curricula in Brazil, based on the National Curriculum Guidelines and the recommendations for integrating skills and competencies into undergraduate curricula proposed by the World Health Organization. Results Comparison of competencies sets was conducted to indicate the specific competencies to be included as essential for Brazilian nurses. Levels of proficiency were indicated for the establishment of learning objectives and learning experiences and evaluation tools recommended from the literature. Conclusions The competencies provided are the beginning of the discussion that will have to take place in every nursing school, if all Brazilian nurses are to graduate ready to participate should a disaster occur.