Summary: In 2018, Palu City in Central Sulawesi Province suffered a tsunami, an earthquake, and liquefaction. Based on the experience, the local Health Polytechnic added disaster health management to its curriculum. However, only in 2023 were they able to organize field simulations as part of the curriculum, especially for the midwife study program, as Indonesia has the second-highest maternal mortality rate, with two deaths per hour among ASEAN countries. This field report employed an observational descriptive approach, with the authors serving as resource persons and facilitators who were actively involved in the field simulation organized by the Palu Ministry of Health Polytechnic of Applied Midwifery Study Program. The simulation scenario was an earthquake similar to the 2018 disaster event in Palu City. It was simulated that when the disaster occurred, the local community contacted the midwife at the health center, and they would immediately respond with the students using the integrated ambulance system to the disaster location and form a specialized EMT. After the classroom simulation and field simulation, students were able to understand and directly apply the disaster management paradigm in real situations by using MISP as part of the technical subject in the simulation. Lessons learned from the study involved 153 midwifery students and 10 midwives in the areas of two Health Centers, Mamboro Health Center and Talise Health Center, in North Palu Sub-district. Participants simulated emergency disaster response operations, developed response maps, formed a specialized EMT for Maternal and Infant Health, organized sub-cluster meetings, and prepared a draft of the health contingency plan for health polytechnics with an inter-professional educational approach between the departments of Nutrition, Nursing, and Environmental Health. The impact of this exercise is an example of best practice for the improvement of future health care workers’ curriculum development in the other 28 health polytechnics nationwide.
Yogadhita et al. (Sun,) studied this question.