The possibility of natural disasters and public health emergencies, coupled with the possibility of terrorism, support the need to incorporate emergency preparedness into the curricula for every health professional school.

A survey methodology was employed to assess attitudes toward and knowledge of emergency preparedness among health profession students including schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, and public health. The survey was targeted to graduating students, administered prior to the institution of an emergency preparedness curriculum, and then repeated as an annual survey.

The survey found that 51.8% had been present at a disaster site as non-responders, while only 12.1% ever had been present as a responder. With regard to baseline class room exposure, >50% reported no exposure to such key concepts as incident command, triage, all-hazards planning, surge, and aspects of terrorism. In addition, at the baseline, most students felt they had no competency in emergency preparedness. For example, only 10% of students felt competent with personal protective equipment. While exposure both as a responder and student was low, 82.5% of students felt that emergency preparedness should be a mandatory topic in their education. Lastly, with a minimal curriculum change students showed statistically significant increases on knowledge testing.

While exposure was low for emergency preparedness topics and most did not recognize how information they had been taught might be applicable to emergency preparedness, there was a strong desire for additional training. In addition, simple curricular adjustments can lead to significant improvements in knowledge.