The goal of the research
is to help government agencies and non-profit-organizations (NPOs) better
prepare for events that require a point-of-dispensing (POD) unit. The research
team developed a training exercise that simulated a real world anthrax
outbreak, by using groups of untrained nursing and pharmacy students. These
students were then separated and trained in two different groups:
asynchronously and synchronously. By outlining how to successfully reuse a
point-of-dispensing (POD) unit during emergencies, the researcher compared
Qualtrics surveys that were distributed at the beginning and end of the
exercise. These surveys were meant to show students’ understanding of POD
exercises and then evaluate their understanding of pivotal concepts (retention,
cost, new algorithms, and teaching methods). It was found that the retention of
new material dropped drastically after two months regardless of the type training.
The first month retention dropped to 77% and the second to 46%. On top of the
retention needed, eight trained volunteers would need to be stationed for every
100 people attending the POD. No city would be able to supply the amount of
trained professionals required to satisfy these requirements, so untrained
civilians would need to be used. The cost associated with consistently training
this amount of untrained citizens would surpass any budget. The only feasible
chance to train the amount of volunteers needed, would be to have the material
readily available ahead of time. Asynchronous training is the only viable means
to producing a training program with the scale and retention levels that a real
world event would require.