Abstract
Purpose: :
To assess the implementation and effectiveness of a web-based training program designed to educate Emergency Medical Service Personnel (EMS) in eye-related injuries specifically resulting from Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).
Methods: :
519 EMS volunteered for training in collaboration with Regional EMS Councils of New York City. Participants were predominantly male (74.4%), mean age of 41 years (range: 19-75 years). Most (85.4%) reported at least some college or higher levels of education. 74.1% reported six hours or more of prior WMD training, though 11% reported no prior training. 43.2% had prior large-scale disaster or WMD response experience, 25.8% reported prior eye care triage experience. The effectiveness of the program, comparing pretest (T0) to post-test (T1) and follow-up (T2) was assessed with dependent t-tests.
Results: :
Results: There were significant relations between training and T1 knowledge (p<.001) and training and T2 knowledge (p< .001). There was a significant relation between time of testing (T1, T2) and knowledge (p<.001), such that post-test scores (M = 17.8, SD = 1.3) were significantly higher than follow-up scores (M = 16.6, SD = 2.0). Stratified by experience, EMS who never responded to a large scale disaster or WMD event were almost 2 times more likely to retain eye care knowledge than those who had past response experience (p<.05). The majority of respondents (80%) either agreed or strongly agreed that the training increased their confidence in their ability to respond to a WMD event. Some minimal differences were noted between EMS who participated at T2 and those who did not.
Conclusions: :
An online training program of this type may be a cost-effective means of training EMS and other adult learners. A program of this type may be especially effective for EMS with little prior WMD training and disaster response experience.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: health care delivery/economics/manpower • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: systems/equipment/techniques • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: outcomes/complications