Increasing Disaster Medical Assistance Teams' Intent to Engage with Specific Hazards.

Keita Iyama,Jiro Shimada,Arifumi Hasegawa,Kazunori Yamashita,Osamu Tasaki,Takeyasu Kakamu,Yoshinobu Sato

doi:10.3390/ijerph182111630

Abstract

To ensure human resource availability for a smooth response during various types of disasters, there is a need to improve the intent of those involved in responding to each hazard type. However, Disaster Medical Assistance Team personnel’s intent to engage with specific hazards has yet to be clarified. This study therefore aimed to clarify the factors affecting Disaster Medical Assistance Team members’ (n = 178) intent to engage with each type of hazard through an anonymous web questionnaire survey containing 20 questions. Our results show that the intent to engage in disaster response activities was significantly lower for chemical (50), biological (47), radiological/nuclear (58), and explosive (52) incidents compared with natural (82) and man-made hazards (82) (p < 0.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that incentives were the most common factor affecting responders’ intent to engage with all hazard types, followed by self-confidence. Thus, creating a system that provides generous incentives could effectively improve disaster responders’ intent to engage with specific hazards. Another approach could be education and training to increase disaster responders’ confidence. We believe that the successful implementation of these measures would improve the intent of responders to engage with hazards and promote the recruitment of sufficient human resources.

Highlights

The initial response by the Rapid Response Team or Medical Emergency Team is the most important factor associated with the prognosis of individuals in critical situations [1,2,3].Over recent years, the general public has experienced various types of hazards, which can be divided into three groups, namely natural, man-made, and specific hazards (e.g., the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)or chemical terrorism), and the risk of facing these hazards, except traffic accidents, has not decreased over time [4,5,6,7]
The current study found that being in a nonaffected area and having experience in natural disaster response activities were positive and negative factors characteristically influencing intent to engage in man-made disaster activities
The current study reveals that Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) members had lower intent to engage with

Summary

Introduction

The initial response by the Rapid Response Team or Medical Emergency Team is the most important factor associated with the prognosis of individuals in critical situations [1,2,3].Over recent years, the general public has experienced various types of hazards, which can be divided into three groups, namely natural (e.g., earthquakes), man-made (e.g., vehicular accidents), and specific hazards (e.g., the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)or chemical terrorism), and the risk of facing these hazards, except traffic accidents, has not decreased over time [4,5,6,7]. Specific hazards can be further characterized as chemical (C), biological (B), radiological (R), nuclear (N), and explosive (E) (CBRNE) incidents, which clearly necessitate a rapid and smooth response to save people’s lives. The frequency of these hazards has been increasing, which has led to the need for proactive measures to be undertaken [8,9,10]. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, one of the most famous radiological/nuclear (R/N) incidents, showed that providing smooth disaster response activities at all times can be difficult [11].

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Discussion

Conclusion