Catalog

Abstract -- To understand if paramedics training program has adopted disaster medicine, we reviewed the details of 2006 training program and analyzed the contents as follows. Sixty paramedic participants were enrolled to attend pre- and post-test. The associations between the contents of paramedic program and disaster medicine were determined by the consensus of three independent experts. The paramedic training included mainly five parts, that is, core lecture, hospital practice, case conference, ambulance practice and specific training course such as DMAT training course. The training course of disaster medicine has been mainly conducted in core lecture, case conference and DMAT training course. The total hours spent in disaster medicine training were about 30+3 hours that accounted for 8.4+2.2% of lecture hours. It also accounted for 3.6%+0.8% of total practice time. In addition, there is significantly better performance for these paramedics between pretest and posttest (65+10 points vs. 82+9 points, P<0.05). In conclusion, disaster medicine training has been implemented in paramedic training program and has also been proven to be useful in promoting their understanding of this field. However, it is also important to increase consistently the quality and quantity of the training.