2022 Volume 6 Article ID: 2022-024
When disaster strikes, everyone is a party to the situation, and emergency response is required. It is not enough to learn disaster response skills after encountering a disaster. All medical professionals must acquire the ability to respond to disasters as a “second specialty”. Furthermore, the spread of COVID-19 has changed the status of “disaster medicine” and the educational environment. We are now required to have the ability to respond comprehensively to different targets, such as natural disasters and the spread of infectious diseases, as well as to “complex disasters” in which natural disasters and the spread of infectious diseases occur simultaneously. Disaster medicine is not to be learned as a subspecialty of each field, but as a “second specialty” that must be learned in an integrated manner. This will enable appropriate responses to health crises arising from all types of emergencies. First, educators themselves must acquire the ability to respond to disasters as a second specialty. If this is not possible, efforts should be made to connect the learner with the appropriate educator.
