Video of a disaster drill is effective in educating registrars on the hospital disaster plan

OBJECTIVE: To test whether an instructional video of edited footage from a disaster drill is effective in educating registrars on the hospital disaster plan. METHODS: This was a prospective pre- and post-intervention study. Forty hospital registrars were shown a 15 min video based on footage obtained at a simulated mass casualty incident. The video provided information on the ED disaster response plan and principles of hospital disaster management. A survey was developed to assess disaster plan knowledge before and after viewing the video. The survey had a predetermined 'pass mark' of 14/20 (70%). RESULTS: Thirty-nine registrars completed the surveys. Three of 39 (7.7% 95% confidence interval [CI] 7.0-8.3%) registrars achieved the pass mark in the pre-video survey and 35/39 (89.7% 95% CI 81.2-98.3%) registrars achieved the pass mark in the post-video survey (chi(2)-test P < 0.001) with an absolute increase in the pass rate of 82% (95% CI 75.8-88.2%). CONCLUSION: This finding justifies compulsory viewing of the video in the registrar orientation package locally and might encourage more widespread use of educational video in hospital disaster preparedness.