Education
A well preparation is the key to success. By education and training all people who are involved with the relief of victims are able to make the acquaintance of the practical side of this. Furthermore the Emergency Response Programme may be tested in practice and be adapted if needed.
The Major Incident Hospital provides these educations and training. Personnel who fulfill a central role during the implementation of the Emergency Response Programme, 'the kernal staff', is trained more frequent than the remaining personnel. This kernal staff consists of:
- Fire department UMC
- Security Service UMC
- Nurses and medical staff ER and IC-1/Clinical Toxicology
- First Responsible Nurses
- Administrative personnel
- Volunteers of the Dutch Red Cross.
For the kernal staff repetition of education, that is adjusted regularly, of utmost importance. This repetition education will take place annually. During this meeting the attention will also go to the specific problems, such as infection, disinfection, communication and registration, meeting of training, the solution of casus and discussion about all that concerns relief of patients during mass casualty incidents.
An additionally advantage of these meetings is that they see and speak eachother. That provides a better collaboration during the next training or real mass casualty incident. From the UMC and CMH nurses are educated / schooled annually during one day for the function of first responsible nurse in the nurse departments of the Major Incident Hospital. These first responsible nurses are experienced nurses who get a leading role during the relief of victims in the Major Incident Hospital. Besides that they will be called as first nurse via the automated personnel alert system.
Training
Annually an excercise will be organized whereby, because an external mass casualty incident, victims will be admitted in the Major Incident Hospital. These excercises are multi disciplinary through what the whole chain and administrative procedures are practiced.
This excercising is also used to profile the function of the Major Incident Hospital. Representatives of the media and organizations who concern mass casulaty incidents are invited as guest / observant.