Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel must continuously educate themselves on mass-casualty management. Emergency medical services personnel in Israel are provided with continuing education programs aimed at maintaining knowledge and skills to manage different types of mass-casualty incidents (MCIs). There are 11 Magen David Adom (MDA) regions that have different incidences and experience with MCIs.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention for the management of conventional and mega MCIs.

A 17-item, multiple choice question pre-test (n = 640) and post-test (n = 536) were administered after a brief continuing education intervention based on lectures and discussion in all 11 EMS regions. The MCI and mega MCI scores were combined to provide an overall MCI score. An independent t-test and ANOVA were used to examine for differences by age, seniority, role, and area of employment of EMS personnel. (p = 0.05)

Reliability of the pre- and post-tests was 0.70. The overall mean score and standard deviation for the pre- and post-test was 64.31% Â ± 14.2% and 75.0% Â ± 14.0%) respectively (p = 0.000). Distribution of scores on the pre- and post-tests were: 80%, 11.8% pre-test, 42.7% post-test. No significant differences were found in pre-/post-test scores by area. Older personnel (> 50 years of age), and those who had been working in EMS for longer periods were found to have significantly lower scores (p = 0.05). Overall scores of paramedics was significantly higher than driver/medics. (p = 0.05).

Both pre- and post-tests were reliable. Post-test scores improved significantly after the intervention. Age and seniority are factors that must be considered when developing continuing education interventions. Possibility should be given to implementing role specific continuing education interventions. Attrition of knowledge must be investigated.