Emergency Preparedness
Skryabina, E., Reedy, G., Amlôt, R., Jaye, P., & Riley, P. (2017). What is the value of health emergency preparedness exercises? A scoping review study. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 21, 274–283. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2016.12.010
Conclusion
One purpose of a scoping review is to map the territory in an emerging domain, so that both the boundaries and the terrain can more confidently identified. We argue that despite the lack of evidence these exercises hold tremendous benefits for individual participants, and that exploring these should be a prime part of research in the field moving forward. The overall analysis of studies reported here show that individuals enjoy and see value in participating in these exercises, but this should be explored further using both empirical and interpretive approaches. Personal outcome measures could assess the impact of the exercise on the individuals involved, as well assess the transfer of learning and skills acquired through emergency exercises to their day-to-day performance at work. Further, the impact of exercise participation on real-world emergency response is still poorly researched; this would directly relate to the exercise effectiveness. Follow-up studies to look at the implementation of actions identified through the exercise, as well as turning lessons identified into lessons learned and acted upon, would add significantly to our understanding about how and why emergency preparedness exercises can be valuable and effective.
Further Research Needed 