Implementation of disaster medicine education in German medical schools - a nationwide survey

<p><b>Objectives:  </b>Floods, earthquakes and terror attacks in recent years emphasize the importance of disaster preparedness for the medical community. To best prepare doctors for providing optimal care in disaster situations, specific education and training should start at the medical school level.<b> </b>This study contained an online survey among German medical schools to detect the status quo of teaching disaster medicine and to reveal potential obstacles.</p> <p><b>Methods: </b>The deaneries of 36 German medical schools were contacted from April 2016 to May 2017. Via an e-mail link, recipients could anonymously and voluntarily access an online questionnaire (104 items, 42 with a four-point Likert scale, 28 Yes/No questions and 34 with listed items to choose from). The answers were analyzed by descriptive statistics.</p> <p><b>Results: </b>A total of 25 medical schools participated in the survey. Twenty respondents were in favor of expanding disaster medicine teaching at their institutions. The curricular implementation of single topics like triage (n = 21) up to accidents involving radioactive materials (n = 4) varied widely. Only two schools had established a teaching coordinator for disaster medicine and only one e-learning course had been established. Twenty-one respondents regarded financial and 18 regarded organizational matters to be major hurdles in the future.</p> <p><b>Conclusion:</b> Though most faculty representatives indicated they favor expanding and implementing disaster medicine education, German schools still have a lot of room for enhancement in this field<b>. </b>A coordinated effort for a new nationwide e-learning-supported curriculum should be made to establish a defined basis of knowledge and skills in disaster medicine among medical students.</p>