The Effectiveness of Simulation Based Medical Education In Teaching Concepts of Major Incident Response

We conduct a study to see the students confident and perceived understanding in the management of major incident response. We conducted a cross sectional questionnaire-base study on a group of 45 medical students who underwent their Emergency Medicine posting in UKMMC. They were given an hour lecture on major incident response and followed with a moulage exercise that consists of scene response, in-hospital management and a mock press conference. A 14 point questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale was developed and used to gauge the perceived level of understanding and confidence among the respondents in the 7 principles areas of managing a major incident as outlined in the Major Incident Medical Management and Supports (MIMMS). The result was analyzed using a paired-T test to compare the mean score of pre- and post exercise. The results showed Simulation Based Medical Education (SBME) improved in the level of understanding in all the 7 areas of major incident response with the median score of 3/5 to 4/5 in pre and post-exercise respectively. The confident level also showed improvement from pre- to post-exercise in all areas except in communication (using the 2-way radio). Overall, there was statistically significant increase in term of understanding (t value = 5.596; p = 0.001) and confident level (t value = 5.259; p = 0.002) from pre- to post-moulage exercise. The students rated that their confidence and understanding of the principle of major incident management has improved considerably following the moulage session. Further studies are recommended by the authors on the value of using high fidelity SBME for Disaster Medicine education in undergraduates.