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Improving Mass Casualty Incident Preparedness of Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellows: A Quality Improvement Initiative

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2025

Christopher Wright*
Affiliation:
University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Cullen Clark
Affiliation:
Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Hazel Jeong
Affiliation:
Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Jessica Gillespie
Affiliation:
Nationwide Children’s Hospital Center for Clinical Excellence
Rachel Stanley
Affiliation:
Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Jennifer Melvin
Affiliation:
Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Pediatric Emergency Medicine
*
Corresponding author: Christopher Wright; Email: christopher.wright2@uhhospitals.org
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Abstract

Objective

Mass casualty incidents (MCI) overwhelm health care systems; however, MCIs are infrequent and require ongoing preparatory efforts. Although there is dedicated disaster medicine education in emergency medicine, most pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) fellows complete pediatric residencies. Pediatric residents have variable exposure to disaster training as part of their curriculum. To improve this, a quality improvement (QI) initiative was implemented to increase MCI comfort and knowledge amongst PEM fellows.

Methods

This study took place in a single-center tertiary pediatric hospital, amongst 1 cohort of PEM fellows. Following a baseline survey, a key driver diagram was developed to guide Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles. A focused disaster curriculum was provided to fellows and specific quick references were developed. Knowledge application interventions included mock triage, response scavenger hunt, and tabletop MCI exercise.

Results

PEM fellow comfort and knowledge of MCI response improved from an average of 2.93 to 6.56 on a 10-point Likert scale, and 3.71 to 6.58 on 10-point Likert scale respectively following the active intervention cycle and showed sustained results over a 6-month period without further interventions.

Conclusions

Utilizing QI methodology, PEM fellow comfort with MCI response, and knowledge of MCI response increased. As MCIs are a rare occurrence, ongoing assessment is necessary to evaluate the need for further interventions to maintain knowledge and comfort levels.

Information

Type
Original Research
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc
Figure 0

Figure 1.Key Driver Diagram developed for the QI Initiative.

Figure 1

Figure 2.Run chart data of fellow reported comfort with MCI process on 0-10 Likert Scale.

Figure 2

Figure 3.Run chart data of fellow reported knowledge of MCI process on 0-10 Likert Scale.

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