22 August 2024: Due to technical disruption, we are experiencing some delays to publication. We are working to restore services and apologise for the inconvenience. For further updates please visit our website: https://www.cambridge.org/universitypress/about-us/news-and-blogs/cambridge-university-press-publishing-update-following-technical-disruption
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
This journal utilises an Online Peer Review Service (OPRS) for submissions. By clicking "Continue" you will be taken to our partner site
https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pdm.
Please be aware that your Cambridge account is not valid for this OPRS and registration is required. We strongly advise you to read all "Author instructions" in the "Journal information" area prior to submitting.
To save this undefined to your undefined account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your undefined account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save this article to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Training emergency personnel on the clinical management of a mass-casualty incident (MCI) with prior chemical, biological, radioactive, nuclear, or explosives (CBRNE)-exposed patients is a component of hospital preparedness procedures.
Objective:
The objective of this research was to determine whether a Virtual Emergency Department (VED), designed after the Stanford University Medical Center's Emergency Department (ED) and populated with 10 virtual patient victims who suffered from a dirty bomb blast (radiological) and 10 who suffered from exposure to a nerve toxin (chemical), is an effective clinical environment for training ED physicians and nurses for such MCIs.
Methods:
Ten physicians with an average of four years of post-training experience, and 12 nurses with an average of 9.5 years of post-graduate experience at Stanford University Medical Center and San Mateo County Medical Center participated in this IRB-approved study. All individuals were provided electronic information about the clinical features of patients exposed to a nerve toxin or radioactive blast before the study date and an orientation to the “game” interface, including an opportunity to practice using it immediately prior to the study. An exit questionnaire was conducted using a Likert Scale test instrument.
Results:
Among these 22 trainees, two-thirds of whom had prior Code Triage (multiple casualty incident) training, and one-half had prior CBRNE training, about two-thirds felt immersed in the virtual world much or all of the time. Prior to the training, only four trainees (18%) were confident about managing CBRNE MCIs. After the training, 19 (86%) felt either “confident” or “very confident”, with 13 (59%) attributing this change to practicing in the virtual ED. Twenty-one (95%) of the trainees reported that the scenarios were useful for improving healthcare team skills training, the primary objective for creating them. Eighteen trainees (82%) believed that the cases also were instructive in learning about clinical skills management of such incidents. Conclusions: These data suggest that training healthcare teams in online, virtual environments with dynamic virtual patients is an effective method of training for management of MCIs, particularly for uncommonly occurring incidents.
Conclusions:
These data suggest that training healthcare teams in online, virtual environments with dynamic virtual patients is an effective method of training for management of MCIs, particularly for uncommonly occurring incidents.
Collaboration is used by the US National Security Council as a means to integrate inter-federal government agencies during planning and execution of common goals towards unified, national security. The concept of collaboration has benefits in the healthcare system by building trust, sharing resources, and reducing costs. The current terrorist threats have made collaborative medical training between military and civilian agencies crucial.
This review summarizes the long and rich history of collaboration between civilians and the military in various countries and provides support for the continuation and improvement of collaborative efforts. Through collaboration, advances in the treatment of injuries have been realized, deaths have been reduced, and significant strides in the betterment of the Emergency Medical System have been achieved. This review promotes collaborative medical training between military and civilian medical professionals and provides recommendations for the future based on medical collaboration.
Just-in-time ( JIT) Educational Strategy has been applied successfully to share scientific knowledge about disasters in several countries. This strategy was introduced to China in 2008 with the hopes to quickly disseminate accurate scientific data to the population, and it was applied during the Sichuan Earthquake and Influenza A (H1N1) outbreak. Implementation of this strategy likely educated between 10,000 and 20,000,000 people. The efforts demonstrated that an effective JIT strategy impacted millions of people in China after a disaster occurs as a disaster mitigation education method. This paper describes the Chinese JIT approach, and discusses methodologies for implementing JIT lectures in the context of China's medical and public health system.
The consequences of a major incident at a sporting event could be catastrophic. Therefore, there should be an estimation of the healthcare resources at such events as part of the planning. Although there are National guidelines (e.g., Planning Safe Public Events: Practical Guidelines in Australia) defining the role of the healthcare system at sporting events, these guidelines either lack a simple calculating method to estimate the need for healthcare resources or the methods are complex and impractical to use. The objective of this study was to find a safe and easy method for the estimation of healthcare resources at sporting events.
Methods:
A model for the estimation of healthcare resources at music events recently has been approved in Sweden. After minor adjustments, this model was used at sport events by a number of planning officers. The models' accuracy and usability was evaluated by analyzing its outcome in a pilot and a controlled study using different sporting and non-sporting scenarios.
Results:
The pilot study showed that the model was valid and easily could be used for various sporting events. The obtained estimations were consistent with the methods used by experienced planning officers in 97% of cases. The results of the controlled study showed that by using this model, the minimum amount of resources required easily could be calculated at sporting events and by people with different backgrounds.