Table 1.
Modules 1–14
| Modules, learning activity | Educational goal | Core contents |
|---|---|---|
| a Medical Student Disaster Medicine Curriculum, Modules 1–3 | ||
| Module 1, Lecture and PBLD | ||
| Introduction to disaster medicine, terminology | To learn definitions of disaster medicine and to develop an understanding for general disaster management | Glossary and common disaster medicine definitions, differences between disaster and emergency medicine, different phases of disaster management |
| Disaster assistance | Principles of disaster assistance | |
| Disaster assistance organization, assistance agencies and structure | ||
| Typology | To consider the heterogeneity of disasters | Natural and technological disasters, terrorism, man-made disasters, civilian disorders, environmental and other threats |
| Laws and regulations | To understand the legal environment and regulations for civil protection and disaster preparedness | Regulative and administrative issues for civil disaster protection, warfare disaster protection laws, rescue service and hospital laws, governmental resources, and authorities |
| Module 2, Lecture and PBLD | ||
| Disaster medical management | To realize the architecture and organizational management necessary for coping with mass casualty incidents and large-scale acutely ill patients in a coordinated way | Mass casualty disposition, treatment area, transport issues |
| Functional operations | Tasks of rapid-intervention-units (sanitary/psychosocial care) | |
| Incident command systems | Disaster contingency plans command and control structures, functional operations center | |
| Coordination structures | Coordination, integration, and cooperation of multi-agency rescue and assistance response | |
| Functional roles | Functional response roles, e.g., lead emergency physician, organizational leader, and technical command post | |
| Information management | Communication, coordination | |
| Module 3, Lecture and PBLD | ||
| Specific disaster medicine | To develop skills in principles of tactically managing mass casualties and large numbers of patients suffering, e.g., from combined conventional trauma and thermal injuries | Patient assessment and triage: triage levels, tags, registration; primary emergency care, multi-tasking and operational management phases (e.g., patient collection, treatment area, transport) |
| Tactic disaster medical management | Logistical requirements for care of burn-injuries, mine blast, and missile-hit victims (including high-speed bullet injuries), mass trauma management | |
| b Medical Student Disaster Medicine Curriculum, Modules 4–8 | ||
| Module 4, PBLD and Interactive Review | ||
| Hospital preparedness and disaster management planning | To follow orders and principles of hospital alarm and evacuation plans | Hospital disaster laws |
| Hospital alarm plans | ||
| Hospital preparedness plans for | ||
| - Management of external disasters with mass casualties suffering from multiple injuries, intoxication, infections, and/or radioactive contamination | ||
| - Management of in-house disasters with fire incidents and hospital evacuation | ||
| Module 5, PBLD and Interactive Review | ||
| Presentation of past disasters and review of assistance experiences | To evaluate and understand feasibility issues of providing medical support and health care in the field and under disaster conditions based on experience from worldwide disaster assistance operations | Presentation of past disasters and disaster assistance experience gained in the field, e.g., from lead emergency physicians, operations in earthquake assistance, explosions, highly contagious infectious diseases, repatriation flights, and with the German Federal Armed Forces Medical Corps in world crisis regions |
| Module 6, Experiential Training | ||
| Preclinical and clinical triage exercise | To perform triage decisions in reality simulation | Triage training exercise: real or virtual scenario simulation rescue exercise, e.g., explosion with mass casualties and blast, mechanical, and thermal injuries of all triage levels |
| Module 7, Experiential Training | ||
| Evacuation exercise | To apply operational principles and steps of action for evacuation procedures | Command post exercise, real or virtual: e.g., evacuation organization and evacuation of a hospital, school, part of town, etc. |
| Module 8, Lecture and PBLD | ||
| Life-saving disaster emergency medical care | To learn concepts of life-saving emergency disaster medical care | Under disaster conditions: provision of life-saving emergency medical care to adults and children, e.g., shock therapy, pain treatment, and sedation |
| c Medical Student Disaster Medicine Curriculum, Modules 9–11 | ||
| Module 9, Lecture and PBLD | ||
| Specific disaster emergency medical care for various situations including bioterrorism incidents | To get to know principles of specific disaster medical care | Disaster emergency medical first aid, specific measures |
| Surgical and medical treatments of burn and thermal injuries and illnesses from explosive, warfare and biological agents | ||
| Epidemiology and approaches to terrorist attacks, weapons, and highly contagious infectious diseases, sentinel cases | ||
| Module 10, Lecture and PBLD | ||
| Radiological and nuclear threats, accidents with radioactive material, radiation illness and syndrome, decontamination | To learn principles and basic medical care for management of incidents with radiologic/nuclear agents and contaminated victims | Specific dangers of radiological/nuclear agents, associated illnesses and radiation syndrome |
| Self protection, protection and detection equipment, special intervention units | ||
| First aid medical treatment, isolation and radioactive decontamination, decontamination operations in case of mass trauma combined with contamination injuries | ||
| Experiential training | ||
| Decontamination after radiation exposure | To be exposed to practical aspects and procedures of decontamination | Decontamination exercise or decontamination demonstration, e.g., in nuclear power plant or with the fire brigades |
| Module 11, Lecture and PBLD | ||
| Chemical and toxicological threats from hazardous materials and goods, transport risks, acute poisoning and toxic syndromes | To get to know principles of medical countermeasures for management of incidents with dangerous chemical substances, hazardous materials and goods | Identification and risk assessment of hazardous materials, chemicals and goods, and associated toxic syndromes |
| Management of acute intoxications and poisonings, threats from specific poisons | ||
| Self protection, precautions | ||
| Poisoning epidemiology, risk assessment for mass intoxications | First aid medical treatment, e.g., enhanced elimination of toxins, use of antidotes, adjunctive services, e.g., poison emergency centers and toxicology laboratories | |
| Experiential training | ||
| Decontamination after chemical poisoning | To experience exposure to decontamination procedures | Triage in case of mass casualties with toxic syndromes |
| Decontamination measures and exercise | ||
| d Medical Student Disaster Medicine Curriculum, Modules 12–14 | ||
| Module 12, Lecture, PBLD, and Interactive Review | ||
| Ethics and professionalism | To develop familiarity with ethical codes and the duty of care relevant to disaster conditions | Geneva Convention and amended protocols, ethical codes of conduct, humanitarian imperatives, social, moral, and ethical challenges of disasters |
| Quality assurance | To understand quality improvement efforts and risk management programs for disaster medical response | Quality control performance indicators, incident monitoring, tools for risk and critical event assessment, structured improvement approaches |
| Appropriate documentation | ||
| Module 13, PBLD and Interactive Review | To comprehend concepts of psychic stress response | Case presentations for identification of critical incident stress reactions and review of therapeutic interventions |
| Psychosocial care | To learn techniques to deal with psychic reactions caused by exposure to disaster scenarios | Treatment approaches to acute and delayed critical incident stress reactions, acute and chronic stress syndromes, post-traumatic stress disorders |
| To recognize need for help and to initiate psychosocial support | Structure and tasks of psychosocial emergency intervention units | |
| Operational strategies of psychosocial treatment | ||
| Module 14, Course Completion | ||
| Closing examination | To demonstrate gain of knowledge and skills | Student final examination, oral and/or written test |
| Evaluation of educational success | To assess educational value of course | Comparison of pre-program versus post-program student test results |
| Learner and educator assessment of course | To maintain continuous curriculum development and improvement in course quality | Student and faculty summative and formative course evaluation |