Introduction: Acute phase response to disasters and mass casualty incidents (MCI) is the responsibility of prehospital providers. Our emergency medical services (EMS) system introduced an expanded capacity to triage, treat, and discharge patients with minor injuries during MCI through Project RESPOND (Rapid Emergency Supplies for Prehospital Operations iN Disaster).

Aims: We examined the efficacy of a short orientation video and tabletop exercise in familiarizing prehospital personnel with this new capacity and resource.

Methods: The training exercise took place during a continuing education course for county Fire Department Response Commanders (RCs). RCs watched a short orientation video and participated in a hands-on tabletop exercise simulating a treatment area for minor injuries. Participants then completed a short post-training survey examining subjective comfort and familiarity with the materials and expanded capacity, knowledge in policy, triage, and treatment of patients with minor injuries, and eliciting feedback on the training module and the resource caches.

Results: Approximately 50 RCs participated in the training; 31 provided survey responses. Most participants felt the training improved comfort with the materials and new capacity. Participants offered constructive feedback regarding the orientation video, tabletop exercise, and cache inventory.

Discussion: We developed a tabletop exercise that is sufficient in familiarizing EMS providers with an expanded MCI capacity and resource, particularly in resource or time constrained settings. Further training modalities should be employed and investigated for efficacy in familiarizing prehospital providers with disaster protocols.