A Curriculum for Medical Students’ Contribution Developed by Analyzing a University Hospital Disaster Response Manuals

Introduction: Human resource shortage frequently arises in hospital disaster response. Medical students may fill the gap with additional education on disaster response operational capabilities, having their primary medical knowledge and understanding of operations in hospitals through clinical clerkships. To make them join in the operation, a curriculum based on the hospital disaster response manual is needed. Methods: The tasks in a university hospital’s disaster management manual were extracted and categorized to determine whether they should be included in the curriculum. Then, the necessary tasks were broken down into component skills to be the targets for medical students to acquire in a designed curriculum. The developed curriculum is piloted on volunteer medical students, and they are proposed to participate in the hospital disaster drill. Results: The four categories were defined to determine the placement of the extracted tasks based on medical students’ capabilities: a) immediately capable, b) capable with basic training, c) capable with advanced training, and d) incapable. The curriculum should include tasks in b) and c); the latter requires additional education. Of the 451 tasks identified, 87 (19%) fell into category a), 182 (40%) into b), 40 (9%) into c), and 142 (31%) into d). The component skills from b) and c) included communication equipment operation, information gathering, and documentation. Consequently, the curriculum focused on information handling and communication procedures, and primary disaster medical skills were added. The preliminary implementation of five sessions in the curriculum made 17 volunteer medical students more interested in the field. Some participated in the hospital disaster response drills, and the hospital staff recognized their capabilities. Conclusion: A curriculum for medical students to participate in hospital disaster response activities was developed. It was partly piloted for medical students, and further evaluations of its effectiveness were needed.