A Systematic Review of the Impact of Disaster on the Mental Health of Medical Responders.

Introduction: Medical responders are at-risk of experiencing a wide range of negative psychological health conditions following a disaster.

Aim: Published literature was reviewed on the adverse psychological health outcomes in medical responders to various disasters and mass casualties in order to: (1) assess the psychological impact of disasters on medical responders; and (2) identify the possible risk factors associated with psychological impacts on medical responders.

Methods: A literature search of PubMed, Discovery Service, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and Cochrane databases for studies on the prevalence/risk factors of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental disorders in medical responders of disasters and mass casualties was carried out using pre-determined keywords.

Drowning: epidemiology, prevention, pathophysiology, resuscitation, and hospital treatment.

This narrative review discusses the evidence relevant to key aspects of drowning, which is defined by the World Health Organization as the process of respiratory difficulty caused by submersion/immersion in liquid. The length of time the victim is submerged is a key factor in survival and neurologic damage. Although respiratory distress and hypoxia are the main events, other complications affecting various systems and organs may develop.

Disaster Exercises to Prepare Hospitals for Mass-Casualty Incidents: Does it Contribute to Preparedness or is it Ritualism?

Unlabelled: IntroductionThe central question this study sought to answer was whether the team members of Strategic Crisis Teams (SCTs) participating in mass-casualty incident (MCI) exercises in the Netherlands learn from their participation.

Methods: Evaluation reports of exercises that took place at two different times were collected and analyzed against a theoretical model with several dimensions, looking at both the quality of the evaluation methodology (three criteria: objectives described, link between objective and items for improvement, and data-collection method) and the learning effect of the exercise (one criterion: the change in number of items for improvement).

Results: Of all 32 evaluation reports, 81% described exercise objectives; 30% of the items for improvement in the reports were linked to these objectives, and 22% of the 32 evaluation reports used a structured template to describe the items for improvement.