Disaster management training in the euregio-meuse-rhine: What can we learn from each other to improve cross-border practices?

Increasing numbers of disasters require comprehensive preparedness. Border regions are vulnerable as disasters might not halt at administrative borders. Cross-border coordination is therefore required. As integral part of cross-border collaborations initiative in the Meuse?Rhine Euregio (EMR), we reviewed published evidence informing on existing initiatives dedicated to disaster education in the EMR. A search based on the PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews was conducted to retrieve articles in the following databases: Medline, PsychInfo and Scopus. The searches were limited to English, French, Dutch and German language articles and the period between January 2010 and June 2019. No restrictions were set for the study design or the type of methodology used. A total of 18 articles met the inclusion criteria out of a total of 1771 publications. Training development was found in two studies while nine studies focused on the state of knowledge in disaster management. Seven articles referred only to technical skills, three only to non-technical skills and eight combined both types of skills. For the technical nature, Knowledge was found seven times, Skills five times and Attitudes twice. On the nontechnical side, Knowledge was found three and both Skills twice and Attitudes three times. Five studies trained and assessed all the Knowledge, skills and attitudes. Most of the studies constitute inventories with descriptive reporting and very few experimental studies of quality have been carried. Non-technical skills for disaster preparedness have been well considered among the articles. Cross-border collaboration needs to be further investigated.