Enhancing Disaster Preparedness Through Tabletop Disaster Exercises: A Scoping Review of Benefits for Health Workers and Students.

Abstract

Background: Tabletop Disaster Exercise (TDE) is a unique learning method through simulation designed to improve disaster preparedness. It is used every year to train health workers and students in disaster preparedness. However, no review has summarized the potential of TDE.

Purpose: This review aimed to identify the potential of using TDE to improve disaster preparedness among health workers and students.

Methods: A scoping review was used by following the guidelines of The PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). A literature search was conducted using five primary databases: CINAHL, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Taylor and Francis, and one search engine, Google Scholar. The keywords were "health workers OR health professionals AND nursing student OR Student AND tabletop exercise OR tabletop disaster exercise AND Disaster preparedness". The inclusion criteria were full-text articles that can be accessed and published in English and primary studies.

Results: This scoping review includes 12 articles. Most of the studies included in this review employed quasi-experimental or pre-experimental designs. The studies were conducted across a variety of countries, including Indonesia, United States, Australia, Iran, Greece, Korea, Qatar, and India. The potential of TDE in improving disaster preparedness is divided into two groups: health workers and students. TDE can improve students' knowledge, attitudes, self confidence and disaster preparedness. In addition, for health workers, TDE improves knowledge, attitudes, awareness, competence, understanding of roles in disaster management, preparedness, performance, triage skills, and self confidence in managing disaster incidents.

Conclusion: TDE, as a disaster management learning method, has great potential to improve disaster preparedness, emergency response, and the ability of health workers to deal with disasters. Nurse managers can design TDE based training and work with educational institutions to integrate it into the curriculum.