2025 Volume 12 Issue 1 Pages 101
Introduction and Purpose/Objectives: Not only due to COVID-19 but also because disasters are increasing and becoming more complex worldwide, the role of nurses in disaster settings is becoming more crucial. Among the various and complex disasters, a mass gathering event is a situation during which a gathering of crowds occurs, producing limited access to patients and a potential for delayed response to medical emergencies due to the event itself.
Approaches/Methods: In particular, it is more important in mass gathering events because it leads to mass casualty incident. The presentation will look at the 2015 Phnom Penh Water Festival (Bon Om Touk), the 2022 Itaewon disaster in South Korea, and the 2024 Islamic pilgrimage event in relation to mass gathering events in the past 15 years. And compared to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which was also the mass gathering event but had very low casualties, I checked whether there were any differences in the scale of the disaster and response system.
Results/Findings: To minimize disasters at a mass gathering event, nurses must consider and prepare for the following key questions in the prevention and preparation stages: “What is the expected volume of patients?, What is the most likely type of injury?, What is the level of care that will be provided?, and What is the worst possible scenario?”. In the case 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, there were 26,893 official entrants, and many spectators and general citizens along the marathon course. However, due to the effective response of the “Medical Tent” and disaster-prepared personnel, the number of fatalities was rare.
Discussion/Implication: As such, “Mass gathering events” are related to various factors such as weather, crowd movement, availability of alcohol/drugs, and the possibility of spreading communicable diseases. Although disaster management is challenging, preparation through education is less costly than learning through tragedy.
