Reporting for duty during mass casualty events: a survey of factors influencing emergency medicine physicians.

Background: Academic medical centers play a major role in disaster response, and residents frequently serve as key resources in these situations. Studies examining health care professionals' willingness to report for duty in mass casualty situations have varying response rates, and studies of emergency medicine (EM) residents' willingness to report for duty in disaster events and factors that affect these responses are lacking.

Objective: We sought to determine EM resident and faculty willingness to report for duty during 4 disaster scenarios (natural, explosive, nuclear, and communicable), to identify factors that affect willingness to work, and to assess opinions regarding disciplinary action for physicians unwilling to work in a disaster situation.