Graduate Education and Simulation Training for CBRNE Disasters Using a Multimodal Approach to Learning. Part 2: Education and Training from the Perspectives of Educators and Students

Abstract : The Simulation and Modeling Center at the Chemical Casualty Care Division (CCCD) of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD) approaches education and training from a human-performance perspective and uses an integrated multimodal approach that includes lectures, human actors, manikins, a cholinergic-crisis laboratory exercise, tabletop exercises, and computerized modeling and simulation. Part 1 of this two-part series provided an overview of teaching at CCCD and explored theories of learning. Part 2 describes the multiple modalities used by the USAMRICD Simulation and Modeling Center to educate students and reviews an unpublished 2006 CCCD study on the efficacy of various CBRNE training modalities (including simulation using a nonhuman primate) from a student's perspective. The results provide a benchmark for manikins and computer simulations to use in future CBRNE training. As of November 2011, the course no longer used nonhuman primates, they had been replaced with manikins which had been in development for years. Therefore the course is in compliance with DoD policy Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI) 3216.01, Use of Animals in DoD Programs, September 13, 2010. In addition, the importance of training as a team in simulation training is addressed.