Curriculum design in disaster and mass casualty education: a scoping review of healthcare education

BACKGROUND: Effective disaster and mass casualty incident (MCI) response depends on healthcare professionals who can apply clinical, operational, and team-based competencies under pressure. However, existing reviews have not comprehensively mapped how disaster and MCI curricula are designed, delivered, and evaluated across healthcare education settings. OBJECTIVE: To map the structure, educational strategies, competency focus, and outcome evaluation approaches of disaster and MCI education curricula for healthcare learners and professionals. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review following Arksey and O'Malley's framework, JBI guidance, and PRISMA-ScR reporting. PubMed, Embase, Scopus, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Google Scholar were searched for English-language studies published from 2015 to 2025. The search was updated on 6 January 2026. Two reviewers independently screened studies and charted data. Outcomes were mapped using Moore's Expanded Outcomes Framework. RESULTS: Forty-one studies were included. Curricula were classified as stand-alone (n = 14, 34.1%), embedded (n = 16, 39.0%), longitudinal (n = 4, 9.8%), or model proposals (n = 7, 17.1%). Outcome evaluation was concentrated at lower Moore levels: 22 studies (53.7%) assessed satisfaction, 16 (39.0%) assessed declarative knowledge, 18 (43.9%) assessed procedural knowledge, 15 (36.6%) assessed competence in simulated or controlled settings, and 5 (12.2%) assessed real-world performance. No study assessed patient-, community-, or system-level outcomes. Only six studies (14.6%) explicitly targeted interprofessional learner groups. CONCLUSION: Disaster and MCI education curricula are increasingly reported but remain heterogeneous in structure and evaluation. Future curricula should strengthen alignment between competencies, teaching methods, and assessments; include interprofessional learning where relevant; and use feasible approaches to assess competence and real-world performance.