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Introduction to Tabletop and Communication Exercise
The
tabletop exercise is a focused, comprehensive and beneficial guide that has
been increasingly adopted and successfully incorporated by the various agencies
of the international community. The purpose of this exercise is to facilitate
constructive discussions and analysis of various emergency situations that are
commonly faced - in an informal stress free environment. A scenario is
described to the exercise participants, who would then decide what actions they
would take. Often, the scenario is designed to change over time, with the
facilitator providing updated information or changing conditions as the
exercise progresses.
In this
programme, equipment and resources are not deployed. The participants from
various different agencies are given the opportunity to work together around a
table to solve the situations according to their specialized role based on
existing operational plans. This increases the awareness of participants
towards each role during disaster management and to improve the communication
gap between the agencies as they learn to appreciate the value of each member
of the rescue service.
The purpose
of a tabletop exercise is to validate plans, policies, and procedures. It uses
a hypothetical scenario with subsequent updates to stimulate how the incident
might unfold. Together, the scenario and its update will drive the players
discussion. Typically, it involves decision
makers from multiple agencies or multiple functions within an agency.
In conclusion, the tabletop exercises must be a part of any agency's training and business management practices. Plans, policies, and procedures are worthless unless senior management, filed commanders, and responders understand their roles and responsibilities.
Disaster
Management
Disaster medicine is the area of medical specialization serving the dual areas of providing health care to disaster survivors and providing medically related disaster preparation, disaster planning, disaster response and disaster recovery leadership throughout the disaster life cycle. It is focused on providing appropriate medical responses to disaster. Specialists in this field have training in a number of different areas, which enables them to participate in disaster planning and preparedness, disaster response, and disaster recovery.
In a disaster, ordinary social norms and the infrastructure to which people may be accustomed tend to break down. Doctors who specialize in disaster medicine need to be able to provide a response under conditions such as martial law, lack of electrical power, lack of access to medical facilities, and so forth. Thus, disaster medicine plans ahead, working on developing tools such as mobile disaster units which can respond to a disaster scene quickly to set up tents for survivors, emergency rooms, operating facilities, clinic spaces, and so forth.
Nevertheless, a disaster often involves more then one agency to provide their respective services and it is in the utmost interest of our nation that they work in tandem. Therefore a tabletop exercise is the best way to achieve this coherence and a mutual respect for one another, providing a rescue service free of red tape.
An example of the use of this exercise is by the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States. There were operational plans in place to deny airspace in times of national emergency, although they could never be exercised operationally. Nonetheless, the federal Aviation Administration did a complete tabletop exercises with its senior management and as a result, on the morning of September 11, 2001, they were able to successfully ground all non military flights throughout the country within 90 minutes of plan activation. This would never have been possible without tabletop exercises.
Application of Tabletop and Communication Exercise in Disaster Medicine
An example of the use of this exercise is by the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States. There were operational plans in place to deny airspace in times of national emergency, although they could never be exercised operationally. Nonetheless, the federal Aviation Administration did a complete tabletop exercises with its senior management and as a result, on the morning of September 11, 2001, they were able to successfully ground all non military flights throughout the country within 90 minutes of plan activation. This would never have been possible without tabletop exercises.
