Current learning strategies in fire evacuation for seniors and people with disabilities in private seniors' residences and long-term care homes: a scoping review.
William Thériault, Guillaume Blanchet, Claude Vincent and 3 others
PMID 38450205WHAT IT FOUND
Fire drills often cause injury and stress for seniors, yet verbal instructions alone are ineffective.
Safe evacuation requires combining drills with multi-sensory staff training, clear environmental signage, and equipment adapted for mobility and cognitive impairments.
Key findings
01Evacuation drills pose physical and psychological risks to seniors, and few participate, yet they remain essential because verbal or written instructions alone are insufficient.
02Training should use diverse resources and senses, include specific strategies for dementia (calm instructions, reassurance), and be delivered by familiar care-providers rather than only first responders.
03Twelve patents identified six equipment types for evacuation (chairs, boards, bed apparatus, lifts, ziplines, tubes), but their use is poorly documented and cost is a barrier.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The review is a scoping exercise, mapping concepts rather than testing intervention effectiveness. Search was limited to English and French documents, potentially missing relevant studies. Grey literature sources (government guides, patents) may lack the rigor of peer-reviewed research. The number of included scientific studies was small (13), and designs were mostly exploratory. Little information was found on the specific content of training courses.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. Funding was provided by the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services and the Quebec Research Council on Society and Culture.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret this review as evidence that any specific training method or device improves survival rates. The paper maps existing strategies and barriers but does not test their efficacy. The findings are descriptive, not prescriptive for clinical outcomes.