Structure of Pre-Hospital Rapid Response Teams to Chemical, Biological, Radiation and Nuclear Accidents in Iran, A Qualitative Study

The field of pre-hospital rapid response teams is facing major challenges in the field of chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear accidents. Considering that the country of Iran is exposed to the occurrence of these incidents, the possibility of the danger of these incidents and threats cannot be ignored. This study was conducted with the aim of determining effective factors in the formation of pre-hospital rapid response teams in the field of health in response to CBRN accidents.

the current study is qualitative research with a content analysis approach; which was conducted using semi-structured in-depth interviews with 18 specialists and experts through purposive and snowball sampling. Sampling was done until data saturation. Thematic analysis method was used to analyze the data. The study aimed to extract effective factors in the formation of pre-hospital rapid response teams in the field of health in response to chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear accidents in Iran in 2022.

The factors affecting the formation of the team were divided into 5 main classes and 5 subgroups including capacity building (Education, training), operational requirements (information and communication, command and control, emergency response operational plan, internal and external coordination), required resources (equipment, financing), team formation requirements (decontamination requirements, structural requirements) and team formation structure (general team composition, specialized team composition). The highest number of codes with 39% was related to the emergency response operational plan subcategory and the lowest number of codes with 8% was related to the equipment subcategory.

This study presented the design of the local pre-hospital rapid response team in the field of health in chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear accidents in Iran. This plan is for quick pre-hospital response to attend and intervene in the acute phase of these incidents. In order to increase the response capacity and capability of these teams, in addition to the general composition of the team, in order to improve the specialized preparation to deal with the health effects of these incidents, a specialized composition has also been provided. It is suggested; A separate team should be formed for each CBRN area based on the risk assessment of the offending areas of the country.