Video of a disaster drill is effective in educating registrars on the hospital disaster plan

Objective: To test whether an instructional video of edited footage from a disaster drill is effective in educating registrars on the hospital disaster plan. Methods: This was a prospective pre‐ and post‐intervention study. Forty hospital registrars were shown a 15 min video based on footage obtained at a simulated mass casualty incident. The video provided information on the ED disaster response plan and principles of hospital disaster management. A survey was developed to assess disaster plan knowledge before and after viewing the video. The survey had a predetermined ‘pass mark’ of 14/20 (70%). Results: Thirty‐nine registrars completed the surveys. Three of 39 (7.7% 95% confidence interval CI] 7.0–8.3%) registrars achieved the pass mark in the pre‐video survey and 35/39 (89.7% 95% CI 81.2–98.3%) registrars achieved the pass mark in the post‐video survey (χ²‐test P < 0.001) with an absolute increase in the pass rate of 82% (95% CI 75.8–88.2%). Conclusion: This finding justifies compulsory viewing of the video in the registrar orientation package locally and might encourage more widespread use of educational video in hospital disaster preparedness.