Disaster preparedness exercises improve personnel competence and confidence

Field: Health Professions (Health Sciences)

September is National Preparedness Month, which provides a time each year to focus on being prepared for disasters, including weather-related events, terrorist attacks, and disease outbreaks, among others. Although nurses are critically important to disaster response, evidence has indicated that they are not adequately prepared for these events.1 As part of disaster preparedness, it is imperative that health care leaders provide training to nurses and other health care personnel on emergency policies and procedures and treating disaster survivors. Preparedness exercises are a key component of training that contribute to team building and teamwork. Exercises have been shown to improve personnel's knowledge of emergency events, policies, and procedures; perception of disaster skills; understanding of roles; and overall competence and confidence.1, 2 In addition, exercises can help health care leaders test their emergency plans, protocols, and procedures; identify problem areas; and make improvements.2 Facility leaders should emphasize the importance of preparedness by instituting policies that focus on eliminating deficiencies in preparedness and creating a health care team that can respond effectively to disasters.1 Discussion-based exercises outline disaster-related plans, policies, and procedures, and the roles of each team member in the event of a disaster. They usually are led by presenters to maintain focus on the appropriate objectives and include seminars, workshops, tabletop exercises, and games. Seminars and workshops are both informal discussions, but seminars are held to familiarize personnel with new or updated policies and procedures, whereas workshops are held to create policies and procedures. Tabletop exercises use simulated scenarios to evaluate current preparedness protocols, and games allow for teams to compete against each other in response to simulated emergency situations.2, 3 Operation-based exercises use simulation to create realistic emergency scenarios and can help identify any gaps in current plans and protocols.2, 3 They include drills, functional exercises, and full-scale exercises. Drills are supervised tests of one specific protocol; functional exercises test the coordination among various agencies, including emergency responders; and full-scale exercises examine the reactions of multiple agencies, jurisdictions, and disciplines.3 Although operation-based exercises are more difficult to administer and require more resources than discussion-based exercises, they provide greater insight into the appropriateness of emergency response, including current plans in place.2 National Preparedness Month provides an important opportunity for health care facility leaders to plan disaster response strategies. Part of this planning process should include developing and conducting exercises, which can range from informal discussions to full-scale simulated scenarios involving multiple groups. Such exercises have shown to be beneficial for health care organizations and personnel by allowing for evaluation of current strategies and improving overall competence, confidence, and preparedness of health care teams. I encourage our readers to use this month as a time to identify ways they can be more prepared for emergency situations at their facilities.