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. Methods: A survey methodology was employed to assess both attitudes towards and knowledge of emergency preparedness amongst health professions students which included the schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry and public health. The survey was piloted to graduating students and then administered prior to institution of a emergency preparedness curriculum and then repeated as an annual survey.

The survey found that 51.8% had been present at a disaster as non-responder while only 12.1% had ever been present as a responder. With regard to baseline class room exposure over 50% reported no exposure to such key concepts as incident command, triage, all-hazards planning, surge and aspects of terrorism. In addition at baseline most students felt they had no competency in emergency preparedness. As an 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.