Abstract
The education of medical personnel for triage training is very important, and training medical staff who are able to work in the disaster response is also essential. The authors introduced our practical education methods in Saga University and evaluated the educational effects of this exercise. We performed a mass casualty disaster exercise that involved simulated disaster relief operations for two days in July 2009. This exercise was designed to simulate the triage training education of the Tokyo DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistance Team). Triage and emergency medical care were also involved in this exercise. A total of 119 medical personnel participated in this exercise. We distributed self-administered questionnaires to the participants for the evaluation of the effects of education. Three times, before the training, right after the training and one year after the exercise. About 88% of the participants answered that this exercise was very instructive and interesting. They rated this simulation exercise, very favorably and believed that the knowledge gained from this exercise would be beneficial in the near future. Knowledge gained from lectures only was almost lost after one year. However, the recall of the practical exercise, including the triage simulation, was not lost after one year. The positive response to this simulation exercise suggests that this kind of practical education, including triage simulation, could be very valuable for providing medical personnel with disaster training in Japan.
