Hazardous material and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incident readiness among prehospital care professionals in the State of Qatar

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to determine whether the Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service (HMCAS) personnel fulfil the pre-hospital readiness requirements for hazardous material and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (HazMat-CBRN) incidents. This cross-sectional study performed an online assessment of non-specialist paramedics’ behaviour and knowledge about HazMat-CBRN incident management, followed by a ‘HazMat-CBRN incident management’ course with pre-and post-activity assessments. The validity and reliability of the knowledge assessment questions were also tested. The pre-and-post course assessement responses revealed certain deficiencies in staff knowledge. The multiple linear regression and paired groups t-test demonstrated that this was rectified after the training intervention. The results indicate that the implemented course helped HMCAS staff acquire a satisfactory level of knowledge to ensure their readiness for safe and effective responses to potential HazMat-CBRN incidents in Qatar.

KEYWORDS:

• Ambulance
• HazMat-CBRN
• exposure
• knowledge
• training

Acknowledgments

Open access funding provided by the Qatar National Library.

We wish to acknowledge all the executive and management teams in Hamad Medical Corporation-Ambulance Service, in particular Dr. Loua Al Shaikh, Mr. Brendon Morris, Dr. Nicholas Castle, Mr. Thomas Reiman and Mr. Ali Darwish, Mr. Naveen Pullian, Ms. Sonia Bounouh, and Mr. Mohamed Khnissi, for all their support and responses for assistance in undertaking the research. Thank you to HazMat First responder team in HMCAS for assisting in providing the training entitled “HazMat-CBRN Incident Management”.

Author contributions

Hassan Farhat conceived the idea, prepared the methodology, analysed the data and prepared the original draft.

Guillaume Alinier and James Laughton supervised and reviewed and edited the work.

Kawther El Aifa reviewed and edited and visualised the draft.

Padarath Gangaram and Ouissem Zaghouani validated the data.

Mohamed Chaker Khenissi provided the resources.

Imed Gargouri and Moncef Khadhraoui coordinated with the faculty of Medicine of Sfax, Tunisia administration for the paperwork and in reviewing the manuscript.

All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data and materials

The anonymous data supporting the findings of this study are held by the primary author and available for review upon request.

Ethical approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the Hamad Medical Corporation-Medical Research Committee as a quality improvement/audit project (Ref: MRC-01-20-372). The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board (or Ethics Committee) of Hamad Medical Corporation (protocol Ref: MRC-01-20-372 on 30 June 2020).

Participation in the training activity and the pre- and post-course assessments were deemed as assent to collate responses for anonymized and aggregated analysis.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Hamad Medical Corporation. The publication of this study was funded by Qatar National Library.

Notes on contributors

Hassan Farhat

Hassan Farhat: worked for four years as National Health Operations Coordinator in the Strategic Health Operations Center (SHOC Room) in the Ministry of Health in Tunisia. He handled the coordination between Pre-hospital response services and healthcare facilities in disasters with the Command centres of the Ministry of interior and the Ministry of defence. He is working now as an Acting/Operations Officer in Quality Improvement in healthcare at Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service in Doha, Qatar. He was the team leader of the HazMat Response team and contributed to and led different improvement projects. He is a PhD candidate in Health Sciences in the faculty of Medicine of Sousse-Tunisia and a PhD candidate in Biology in the faculty of Sciences of Sfax-Tunisia. He holds a Master of Research degree in environmental public health, a Certificate of studies in Biostatistics Applied in Health Sciences, and enrolled in Master of Science in Data Analysis and Statistics Applied in Health science.

James Laughton

James Laughton: Senior consultant in Medicine, working as Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service Group Head of Clinical Governance, Risk Management and Quality Improvement, Senior Consultant, Ministry of Public Health Covid-19 PPP Group-Performance Team Advisor, Improvement Advisor in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Team Kanban Practitioner & Kanban Management Professional, Team STEPPS Master Trainer. He is also involved in many improvements project in Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service.

Padarath Gangaram

Padarath Gangaram: senior critical care paramedic consultant in Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service and a research fellow at Durban University of Technology (South Africa). He holds a PhD degree in Emergency medicine.

Kawther El Aifa

Kawther El Aifa: She works in Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service, in the communication section, as Quality Improvement Reviewer, holding a degree in Emergency Medicine, enrolled in Maser of Sciences in Project Management. She participated in many improvement projects. He is Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service.

Mohamed Chaker Khenissi

Mohamed Chaker Khenissi: Senior Operations Manager in Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service, with Ambulance Paramedic credentials. Major Incident Medical Management and instructor.

Moncef Khadhraoui

Moncef Khadhraoui: holding a PhD in Analytical Chemistry and Environmental Pollution, he is an Associate Professor in the Higher Institute of Biotechnology, Sfax university and in Research Laboratory ”Eco-technology and Environmental Engineering” in Tunisia.

Imed Gargouri

Imed Gargouri: Professor in Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine of Sfax, Tunisia. The director of Master of Research in Environmental Public Health ”Ifriqya”, director of the program of master in statistics and data analysis applied in health sciences, director of the certificate of in complementary studies in Biostatistics applied in health sciences.

Guillaume Alinier

Guillaume Alinier: works for Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service (Qatar) as Director of Research. He holds several honorary positions, including Visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire, UK, Adjunct Professor of Education in Medicine for Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar, and Visiting Fellow with Northumbria University. He is involved in a broad range of projects, including ECMO education, major incident preparedness, quality improvement initiatives, driving safety, clinical simulation educators' development, debriefing, and PhD student supervision. He serves on nine peer-reviewed journal editorial boards and is an active member of several learned societies internationally.