Creating a Disaster Ready Pharmacy Workforce: Evaluation of a Disaster Tabletop Exercise

Abstract

Introduction:

While the importance of pharmacists' involvement in disaster management is becoming increasingly recognized in the literature, there are few mechanisms by which pharmacists can prepare themselves for emergencies. This project aimed to determine the effectiveness of a disaster tabletop exercise (TTX) in preparing pharmacy staff for disasters.

Method:

A TTX was held at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Summer Meeting which was held in Phoenix, Arizona in June 2022. The workshop incorporated an evolving emergency scenario in which participants worked through activities pertaining to the mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery cycle. The scenario involved a hypothetical storm and landside scenario across fictional towns in Arizona, US. Workshop attendees worked in small groups on one of two provided hospital profiles. The attendees were invited to complete a pre-post survey assessing their perceptions of disaster management including perceived preparedness. This survey was previously developed, piloted, and published. The paper surveys were collected at the end of the workshop and inputted into RedCap. Data were descriptively summarized using SPSS, and pre-post survey results were compared using appropriate statistical tests.

Results:

The workshop was attended by 40 pharmacy personnel and 31 completed the survey. All participants agreed that the exercise was well structured, realistic, allowed them to test their response plans and systems, and helped improve their understanding of their role and function in disaster response. After the workshop, participants' perceptions of their ability to prevent, respond, and recover from a disaster all significantly improved (p=0.004, 0.013, and 0.013 respectively). However, perceptions of their preparedness for a disaster did not significantly change (p=0.197).

Conclusion:

This study adds to the evidence of the effectiveness in training and preparing the pharmacy workforce. The TTX improved the understanding and perceived capabilities of pharmacy personnel in responding and recovering from emergencies.