Abstract
Background: General physicians play a significant role in the health management of crises. In order to enhance the knowledge and skills of medical students on how to address health-related issues in crises and to promote their ability to manage and deal with such crises after graduation, appropriate training is necessary. Methods: Applying the Delphi method, 103 experts with field experience in health management and crises were invited to participate in the study. The Delphi study provided aggregation of the opinions and extracted the topics. Conventional content analysis was used to make sense of qualitative data gathered during the study. Results: Among the feedback (n = 66) obtained in the first round, a primary list was extracted including 27 topics and 97 single items. Nineteen major topics, encompassing 97 items, were finally determined in the subsequent rounds. The participants agreed to teach this course at the beginning the internship period via different methods of instruction. Conclusion: This study indicated that health management in crises is important and must be taught in medicine. This study provided a blueprint and an educational rationale as well as contents and structure of a course on health management in crisis to be delivered in undergraduate medical education.
Highlights
Over the past two decades, there has been a considerable increase in the frequency and intensity of disasters, resulting in high mortality, economic losses and environmental and health impacts on communities.[1,2] In this period of time, about 200 million people have been affected annually by disasters[3] In other words, these crises have increasingly affected the global economy and sustainable development of the developing countries.[4]
Some initiatives on disaster management have begun in Iranian higher education, for example establishing M.Sc and PhD courses in some Iranian universities, but in spite of the important role of general physicians in health management of crises, there is no mention of disaster management training for medical students in the reports.[7,8]
As Linestone and Turoff defined, “Delphi may be characterized as a method for structuring a group communication process so that the process is effective in allowing a group of individuals, as a whole, to deal with a complex problem.”[12]. The Delphi study allows an aggregation of experts’ opinions and extracts underlying topics in a structured manner.[13]
Summary
Over the past two decades, there has been a considerable increase in the frequency and intensity of disasters, resulting in high mortality, economic losses and environmental and health impacts on communities.[1,2] In this period of time, about 200 million people have been affected annually by disasters[3] In other words, these crises have increasingly affected the global economy and sustainable development of the developing countries.[4]. General physicians play a significant role in the health management of crises. Methods: Applying the Delphi method, 103 experts with field experience in health management and crises were invited to participate in the study. The Delphi study provided aggregation of the opinions and extracted the topics. Results: Among the feedback (n = 66) obtained in the first round, a primary list was extracted including 27 topics and 97 single items. Nineteen major topics, encompassing 97 items, were determined in the subsequent rounds. Conclusion: This study indicated that health management in crises is important and must be taught in medicine. This study provided a blueprint and an educational rationale as well as contents and structure of a course on health management in crisis to be delivered in undergraduate medical education
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