Current standard practice for disaster response training is insufficient to prepare future responders. Interdisciplinary immersive education is necessary for disaster responders to react quickly to the devastating destruction, dangerous situations, and ethical dilemmas, while caring for survivors, families, and communities with limited resources. This study tests the effects of immersive emergency preparedness education on interdisciplinary college students.

Thirty-four college students attended a 3-day immersive disaster training event. Interdisciplinary teams were given 6 challenges to adapt and overcome: mass casualty; field hospital triage, treatment, and transportation; water rescue; high building rescue; search and rescue; and a water treatment. A pretest and posttest survey, Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire (EPIQ), was administered to all participants.

Statistically significant improvements in triage, biological agent detection, assessing critical resources, incident command, psychological issues, clinical decision making, and communication (range of P = 0.000–0.003). Improvement in clinical significance resulted in a change from limited knowledge to familiarity with the subject in all cases except isolation, quarantine, and decontamination.

Preparation and training of health care professionals need to include immersive disaster scenarios that create the experience of fatigue, psychological challenges, and physical stresses.