Masters of Disasters: The development and implementation of an interactive, team-driven board game that teaches the core concepts of CBRNE preparedness

Background/Purpose: Ensuring staff compliance around all hazards' preparedness training for the five key disaster agents: Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives (CBRNE) is a fundamental, yet challenging task given the many learning opportunities a local public health department can pursue. A key challenge that any local health department might face is to develop a learning tool that is engaging, technologically advanced, and geared toward adult learners, fulfilling the needs of various learner profiles such as visual, auditory and hands-on learners. The purpose of this presentation is to highlight challenges and best practices in devising a CBRNE preparedness interactive board game, “Masters of Disasters,” for Los Angeles County Department of Public Health's infrastructure of approximately 4,000 employees, 16 divisions, 50 programs, and a variety of disciplines serving a population of 10 million. Methods: Methods include: project planning; design considerations; content development; audio-visual design; game logistics design; implementation; and evaluation. Results/Outcomes: Utilizing the “Masters of Disasters” board game, 274 staff have been trained. Participant evaluations measured the games' usefulness in preparing staff for a CBRNE emergency. On a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being Worthless and 5 being Very Useful, the analysis yielded 75% Very Useful and 25% Useful. Conclusions: Gaming has been proven an effective learning opportunity through its engaging nature of embracing all learning styles in a fun, team-building and thought provoking way. This learning tool has created a culture-shifting, knowledge-raising experience among department staff in exploring critical learning points that enable the workforce's preparedness for a CBRNE emergency.