Citation

Lennquist S. Int. J. Disaster Med. 2003; 1(1): 25-24.

Affiliation

Centre for Research & Education in Disaster Medicine University of Linköping Sweden

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15031430310009398

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Objectives: To create, develop, test and evaluate an interactive system for education and training in disaster medicine, adjustable to any organization and giving an objective assessment of training and testing. Methods: A system that is simple to use and does not require sophisticated equipment was developed, based on magnetic symbols representing patients, staff and resources, movable markers indicating priority and treatment, and a large patient-bank with a protocol giving results of treatment based on trauma score. The methodology was tested in two models: classroom mode and advanced interactive mode, at all levels, regionally, nationally and internationally. Results: During 1987-2001, a total of 8777 students were trained with the system with the classroom mode in 94 regional, 37 national and 8 international courses. The advanced interactive mode was used for 2518 students in 14 regional, 22 national and 18 international courses. The students' evaluation of the quality of the methodology based on a scoring system of 1-5 was 4.32 ± 0.19 for regional courses, 4.70 ± 0.12 for national courses and 4.58 ± 0.16 for international courses. The students' subjective appreciation of accuracy of the methodology was 4.58 ± 0.16 for national courses and 4.65 ± 0.13 for international courses. Corresponding figures for the advanced interactive mode were 4.78 ± 0.12 for national and 4.81 ± 0.11 for international courses for the methodology and 4.70 ± 0.13 for national and 4.65 ± 0.17 for international courses for evaluation of accuracy. Conclusion: The methodology was well received and the subjective evaluation of the participants on all levels showed very high scores. On the international level many participants had extensive experience. An objective evaluation of accuracy (validity) of the methodology should be carried out as a next step parallel to further utilization of the considerable potential of this methodology.