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

Abstract

BackgroundKeeping the health workforce and the public informed with the latest evolving knowledge is critical to preventing, detecting and responding to infectious disease outbreaks or other health emergencies. Having a well informed, ready, willing, and skilled workforce and an informed public can help save lives, reduce diseases and suffering, and minimize socio-economic loss in affected communities and countries. Providing support and opportunities for learning in health emergencies is much needed for capacity building. In this paper, ‘learning intervention’ refers to the provision of ad-hoc, focused, or personalized training sessions with the goal of preparing the health workers for emergencies or filling specific knowledge or skill gaps. We refer to ‘training methods’ as instructional design strategies used to teach someone the necessary knowledge and skills to perform a task.MethodsWe conducted a scoping review to map and better understand what learning interventions and training methods have been used in the different types of health emergencies and with whom. Studies were identified by searching Pubmed/Medline, Embase and consulting with experts.ResultsOf the 319 records that were included, contexts related to COVID-19, disasters in general, Ebola and wars were most frequently covered. Four topic areas were identified: Knowledge evaluation, Emergency Plans, Impact of the learning intervention, and training methods. Much of the evidence was based on observational methods with few trials, which likely reflects the unique context of each health emergency. Evolution of methods was apparent, particularly in virtual learning. Learning during health emergencies appeared to improve knowledge, management, quality of life, satisfaction and clinical outcomes.ConclusionThis is the first scoping review to map the evidence, which serves as a first step to develop urgently needed global guidance to further improve the quality and reach of learning interventions and training methods in this context.