Assessment of the effectiveness of a course in major chemical incidents for front line health care providers: a pilot study from Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background Mass chemical exposure emergencies are infrequent but can cause injury, illness, or loss of life for large numbers of victims. These emergencies can stretch and challenge the available resources of healthcare systems within the community. Political unrest in the Middle East, including chemical terrorist attacks against civilians in Syria and increasing chemical industry accidents, have highlighted the lack of hospital preparedness for chemical incidents in the region. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a course designed to empower frontline healthcare providers involved in mass casualty incidents with the basic knowledge and essential operational skills for mass chemical exposure incidents in Saudi Arabia. Methods A mixed-methods approach was used to develop a blended learning, simulation enhanced, competency-based course for major chemical incidents for front line healthcare providers. The course was designed by experts from different disciplines (disaster medicine, poisoning / toxicology, and Hazard Material Threat - HAZMAT team) in four stages. The course was piloted over five days at the Officers Club of the Ministry of Interior (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia). The 41 participants were from different government health discipline sectors in the country. Pre- and post-tests were used to assess learner knowledge while debriefing sessions after the decontamination triage session and simulation-enhanced exercises were used for team performance assessment. Results The overall knowledge scores were significantly higher in the post-test (69.47%) than the pre-test (46.3%). All four knowledge domains also had significant differences between pre- and post-test results. There were no differences in the pre and post-test scores for healthcare providers from the different health disciplines. A one-year post-event survey demonstrated that participants were satisfied with their knowledge retention. Interestingly, 38.3% had the opportunity to put this knowledge into practice in relation to mass chemical exposure incidents. Conclusion Delivering a foundation level competency-based blended learning course with enhanced simulation training in major chemical incidents for front line healthcare providers may improve their knowledge and skills in response to such incidents. This in turn can improve the level of national preparedness and staff availability and make a crucial difference in reducing the health impacts among victims.

Learning interventions and training methods in health emergencies: A scoping review

“…Some content was about personal safety and security [ 49 , 50 , 55 , 204 – 206 , 208 , 209 ], waste management [ 66 , 212 , 299 ], mental health [ 95 , 105 , 166 , 172 , 177 , 213 , 221 , 235 , 259 , 277 , 293 ], infection control and prevention [ 139 , 168 , 241 , 264 , 302 ], pest control [ 65 , 66 , 70 , 212 , 216 , 299 ], triage [ 16 , 62 , 91 , 94 , 207 , 271 , 290 ] and stress management [ 31 , 182 , 270 ]. A smaller number of curricula included surgical training [ 98 , 99 , 165 , 323 ], time management [ 223 ], stigma [ 269 ], language and local culture [ 20 ], humanitarian law and leadership [ 102 ], chemical incidents [ 214 ] and dealing with ethical dilemma...…”

“…On training methods, 68 studies [ 13 – 17 , 20 – 25 , 27 – 30 , 32 , 33 , 37 , 41 , 45 , 47 , 48 , 53 , 58 , 59 , 62 , 65 , 68 , 79 , 84 , 85 , 87 , 88 , 90 , 93 , 97 , 111 , 123 – 125 , 138 , 141 , 145 , 146 , 148 , 153 , 161 , 167 , 168 , 170 , 193 , 204 , 214 , 216 , 247 , 251 , 255 , 261 , 294 , 297 , 298 , 300 , 304 , 313 , 321 , 322 …”

Assessment of disaster preparedness and related impact factors among emergency nurses in tertiary hospitals: descriptive cross-sectional study from Henan Province of China

“…Blended learning is a combination of remote and face-to-face and synchronous and asynchronous teaching methods ( 35 ). Prior studies have demonstrated that blended learning is one of the most effective teaching methods in disaster medicine, via multiple teaching strategies it provides the opportunity to teach broad aspects of knowledge and skills ( 36 ). In addition, simulation-based training, such as tabletop exercises, drill, functional and full-scale exercise, and virtual reality simulation exercises, has become a realistic and effective approach to prepare the first responders for disaster management and increase the learner knowledge, enhance self-confidence and refine the skills ( 37 – 39 ).…”

Major Incident Hospital Simulations in Hospital Based Health Care: A Scoping Review

“…28 Three papers were excluded as they were set in Saudi Arabia, which was assessed as too dissimilar to the Australian population and health-care system. [29][30][31] A further 3 studies were excluded as English translations were not available. [32][33][34] Thus, after full text screening, 11 relevant articles were retained.…”