Staff Perspectives of Mass Casualty Incident Preparedness

Introduction Mass casualty incidents (MCI) are low-frequency, high-risk events that disrupt the day-to-day operations of medical centers. Day-to-day protocols are insufficient for effectively managing MCI events, creating a need to develop and test MCI-specific protocols. The aim of this project was to utilize interviews to gain insight into staff experience and perspective on MCIs and their institution's response plans. Methods Staff members who participated in an MCI drill were asked semi-structured interview questions regarding their perspectives on their current priorities, the information needed to perform their role, and their greatest concerns about an MCI. This quality improvement (QI) project utilized a qualitative methodology to thematically organize the results of the staff responses. Results A total of 64 staff members with various levels of patient care experience were interviewed to reach thematic saturation. The use of staff interviews helped to identify the four primary themes that emerged, which were: 1) process, 2) supplies and resources, 3) communication, and 4) roles. Furthermore, each theme also included a number of subthemes. Conclusions This project demonstrated the importance of staff experiences related to MCI simulation training and preparedness, which may be useful for future training and emergency response planning. Additionally, the results may be helpful for other institutions when building a robust MCI simulation training program or designing an emergency response plan.