Innovative use of digital fire to improve fire-fighting skills in a tertiary care hospital

Context: Hospitals are prone to fire. Hospital fire management is also tricky as sick patients are not aware about the surroundings, and also they cannot move of their own. Thus, hospital staff is primarily responsible for taking appropriate and timely measures in case of the hospital fire. However, hospital staff lack knowledge and skills about fire safety. In addition, it is extremely difficult to organize fire drills in a hospital setting for skill improvement. Aims: To conduct fire drills using “digital fire” for skill building and compare it with the usual training method of using information booklets. Settings and Design: Interventional study using before and after study design using alternate interventions in hospital setting. Materials and Methods: Hospital staff (staff nurses, security personnel and hospital attendants) was divided into two groups of 119 persons in each group. Group I was administered information booklets and group II was given lecture demonstration and digital fire drill. Pretest and posttest knowledge and skill assessment was done in both the groups. Statistical Analysis Used: Mean score comparison, pre- and post-intervention, in the two intervention groups, using t-test. Results: Increase in the knowledge scores was significant and similar with both the interventions. However, increase in skill score was more with intervention II. Conclusions: Whereas, information booklets should be distributed and made available to all, it should be mandatory to have skill building demonstration sessions periodically in the hospitals. Digital fire can be used conveniently and effectively.