Introduction:Mass casualty incident (MCI) management was usually taught by lectures and then tested by exercises. However, the lecture may not be interesting and tabletop exercise (TTx) may not adequately engage participants, especially senior medical students. To solve these two problems, we think that a TTx using 3D models can be a good teaching method of MCI management for medical students.Method:A TTx of MCI in the emergency room (ER) was designed for senior medical students based on five core capabilities of MCI management: incident management system, event recognition and initiation of response, patient triage, surge capacity and capability, and recovery and demobilization. 3D models containing miniatures of the ER, hospital staff, patients, and other personnel were used in the TTx. No lecture was conducted before or during the exercise. Students needed to discuss how to respond to events in the incident and show their responses using the 3D models, and the instructor facilitated the discussion and gave feedback right after the students’ decision.Knowledge of each core capability was tested by four multiple-choice questions. The interest in learning disaster medicine and willingness to participate in MCI management were evaluated by questionnaire, along with quantitative feedback to the exercise. The same test and questionnaire were conducted before and after the TTx.Results:From September 2018 to May 2022, 326 students completed both pre- and post-exercise evaluations. The test scores of all five core capabilities, levels of interest, and willingness increased significantly after the exercise. Students thought the exercise was interesting and a good learning tool. Most students wanted to be notified of further training.Conclusion:A tabletop exercise using 3D models is an effective way to teach senior medical students MCI management and disaster medicine while increasing their interest in learning and willingness to participate.

Introduction:Comprehensive emergency management (CEM) and hazard vulnerability analysis (HVA) are two vital concepts in hospital emergency management (EM). Teaching these two concepts by lectures may be less effective and interesting. Therefore, a tabletop game was used to teach CEM and HVA. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of teaching and possible reasons.Method:A tabletop game was created based on the concepts of CEM and HVA. Players of the game needed to manage hospitals against six kinds of emergencies. The impact of each emergency is different. Each hospital in the game has its vulnerability. The game players needed to use different strategies of prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery to win the game.The player’s knowledge was tested by 15 yes-no questions (10 points for each question). The interest in further learning and willingness of hospital EM participation were evaluated by questionnaire. The test and questionnaire were conducted before and after the game. Possible reasons for learning by the game were surveyed after the game.Results:Fifteen emergency department (ED) nurses were taught by the game and completed both pre- and post-game tests and questionnaires. The post-game test average score (103) was significantly higher than the pre-game average score (84) (p=0.008). The participants’ interest and willingness also increased significantly after the game. The most frequently mentioned reasons for learning by the game were “the game is more interesting than lectures”, “the chance to discuss with other participants in the game”, “the chance to see many CEM methods in the game”, and “ability to compare with other players”.Conclusion:A well-designed tabletop game can be an effective tool to teach CEM and HVA. The game can increase knowledge, interest in learning, and willingness of CEM participation, and it should be promoted in the future.

The incident command system (ICS) is widely used in disaster management, but it is hard for novice learners to apply what they learn in actual practice. Considering these aspects, we developed a board game for novice learners to learn ICS and conducted a study to evaluate the effectiveness of the board game method compared with that of traditional lectures. Two sessions of ICS training were conducted using only board games and lectures for each session. In the board game session, the participants played the board game for 1.5 hours without receiving any teaching. The game participants played as disaster response teams based on ICS principles. In the lecture session, a didactic lecture on ICS concepts and their applications in disaster medical assistance team (DMAT) work was taught for 1.5 hours by a disaster medicine expert. Before and after each session, a test comprising 20 multiple-choice questions (5 points for each question) was conducted. In the test, participants were evaluated on how to apply the ICS principle to DMAT work. Participants who had not previously received any disaster medicine education were defined as novice learners and were included to compare the learning effects of the two methods. A paired t-test was used to compare the results within each group, and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the results between the two groups. The study included 17 participants in the board game group and 25 participants in the lecture group. The mean test score was significantly higher after the game and the lecture (pre-game score = 56 versus post-game score = 75, p-value = .001; pre-lecture score = 58 versus post-lecture score = 74, p-value = .002). No significant difference was found in the score improvement between the two groups (p-value = .6). Hence, we can concluded that learning ICS through board games was as effective as using the traditional lecture method for novice disaster medicine trainees. The board game is an useful tool of disaster medicine education.