Deployment and Disaster Medicine in an Undergraduate Teaching Module

Abstract

Modern health systems have to respond to a wide variety of catastrophic scenarios, from natural disasters to terror attacks. It is reasonable to already start educational approaches for physicians in this field at medical school level. An approach combining civilian disaster medicine and military deployment medicine can be beneficial both for clinical strategies and in undergraduate teaching. A curricular 4-week teaching module on "deployment and disaster medicine," interdisciplinarily combining over 12 medical specialties, was launched in the summer semester of 2016 at a civilian medical school. The course was integrated into the undergraduate curriculum by learning spirals. Teaching formats encompassed a total of 72 hours of seminars, clinical case discussions, group work, e-Learning, and practical training. The students' gain in knowledge was analyzed with pre/post-multiple-choice tests and their attitude towards the offer was evaluated. A total of 51 students participated in the module over three semesters. The evaluation revealed that the students were highly satisfied with the offer and felt motivated to increase their engagement with the topic. The students additionally valued the course as a good means of deepening the core curriculum. The pre/post-tests showed a significant gain in knowledge among the students (p < 0.001). The course presented received an overall highly positive feedback from the participating students. The experience of this approach suggests that the combination of civilian and military knowledge and expertise in deployment and disaster medicine may lead to the creation of effective interdisciplinary course concepts.