Education for Healthcare in Disasters: an Imperative for Undergraduate Medical Education

Abstract

Disasters, which are defined as “situations or events which overwhelm the capacity of local sources to address needs”, have been increasing in terms of frequency, diversity and destructiveness, both in our country and throughout the world. The situation of healthcare systems becomes more complicated in disasters because of the increased healthcare needs of populations and the necessity for multidisciplinary work and collaboration with volunteer teams, besides the direct damages on infrastructure and loss of manpower. One of the main tools for coping with these problems is training healthcare workers for disasters. However, it is difficult to claim that disaster preparedness and education for health professionals for responding efficiently are adequate, both for Turkey and the world. Although there are numerous training programs, many of them are organized without any collaboration of institutions, have severe gaps in the content, are unable to cover target groups, and are unable to support coordination of disaster workers from different sectors. In this study, it was aimed to review the existing situation of disaster education in the health sector, and to define the needs for education. Also, core competency objectives for undergraduate medical education are determined and a program is proposed.

Keywords

• Disasters
• healthcare in disasters
• undergraduate medical education