Improving Community Resilience through Disaster Simulation: How Simulation-based Education Augments Emergency Management Exercises

Increased interest among leaders and practitioners in the field of emergency preparedness in the concept of whole community resilience can create new ways reaching the community. This paper explores one approach to community-engaged preparedness education. By drawing on the fields of emergency management and simulation-based instructional design, we describe an approach to preparedness events with broad community participation. We describe the education methodology used to plan the event and the core concepts related to simulation-based education. We offer key principles for event planners to engage a diverse group of participants ranging from youth, pre-professional healthcare students, practicing healthcare professionals, and staff from local community organizations. Our experience through seven years of events offers a proof of concept available to local communities; community organizational leaders concerned with the resilience for their own organizations; and academic organizations preparing our citizens to deal with the challenges of living and serving in a world of increasing risk of disaster.