Investigation of emergency physicians preparation and awareness level for toxic terrorism

Objective: The primary purpose of our study is to measure the preparedness and awareness levels of emergency physicians against toxic terrorism, and to identify the missing/insufficient parts. Its secondary purpose is to develop solutions to eliminate the identified deficiencies. Method: Our study was carried out with a questionnaire consisting of 83 questions, prepared by specialist physicians who are competent in the field, to measure the level of descriptive information and clinical knowledge, for the measurement of preparedness and awareness of toxic terrorism. After the approval of the ethics committee, it was applied to emergency medicine specialists and emergency medicine specialty students working in emergency departments across the country. The results obtained were evaluated in two subgroups as adequate and insufficient. SPSS 22.0 package program was used in the analysis of the data. Chi-square test and Fisher's Exact test were used to compare independent categorical variables. Statistically a p<0.05 was accepted as significant. Results: The most successful topic was bioterrorism with 49 people (26.2%). This topic was followed by triage with 48 people (25.7%), and toxidrom-antidote with 47 people (25.1%). The lowest success was found in the diagnosis and management of chemical agents with 3 (1.6%). While 82 (43.9%) of the participants in the research were not sufficient in any title; 61 people (32.6%) who are sufficient in 1 heading, 31 people (16.6%) who are competent in 2 topics, 10 people (5.3%) who are competent in 3 headings, 1 person (0.5%) who are sufficient in 4 headings ) and 2 people (1.1%) who were sufficient in all titles. The number of people who were sufficient in at least one topic was found to be 105 (56.1%). Statistically higher proficiency rates were found among those with > 2 years of professional experience, those with training in toxic terrorism, and those who had previously managed a CBRN case. Conclusion: With this study, the level of clinical knowledge and awareness of emergency medicine physicians about toxic terrorism was measured. In the light of the data obtained from the physicians participating in this survey, the necessity of developing the existing core training curriculum on CBRN/toxic terrorism and the need to develop repeatable, measurable evaluation methods to measure the knowledge level of emergency physicians on the medical management of toxic terrorism at regular intervals arise.