Shikiko KAMIMOTO

Practical Study of Experiential Learning in Small Hospitals Focusing on Flood Disaster

Yoko MATSUDA

In recent years, floods have been increasing, and business continuity plans (BCPs) are attracting attention not only at companies but also at hospitals. Among the various hospitals, small sized hospitals (20-99 beds) are located near residents' house, and many disaster-affected patients are expected to come to the hospital during disasters. However, in small sized hospitals, it is difficult to formulate business continuity plans that can be implemented on a daily basis due to severe management and lack of staff.
In this paper, we aimed to extract the elements of disaster countermeasures that small hospitals that have experienced disasters in the past can use on a daily basis by making use of their experience of encountering disasters. In this study, based on the experience learning model theory, timeline creation, questionnaire survey, site visit, interview survey, and workshop were conducted. As a result, the factors that complement the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's BCP were clarified, and the possibility that disaster countermeasures could be considered efficiently by cooperation between hospital departments was shown.
This study is based on the empirical learning model theory, and we obtained knowledge from small-scale hospitals rooted in Imazu Hospital in Takashima City, Shiga Prefecture. The empirical learning theory is a theory that enables ideal learning by repeatedly performing the four steps of (1) Concrete Experience, (2) Reflective Observation, (3) Abstract Conceptualization, and (4) Active Experimentation. Imazu Hospital suffered from power outages and rain leaks due to Typhoon No. 21 in 2018.
As a result of this research, the disaster risk of the hospital was clarified by looking back on the disaster encounter experience based on the experience learning model theory, and the unique factors of the hospital were clarified by comparing with the BCP of the Ministry of Health , Labour and Welfare.