What kind of exercises are designed to familiarize participants with existing plans and procedures?

Discussion-based exercises are designed to familiarize participants with existing plans and procedures. These types of exercises focus on encouraging dialogue among participants about emergency plans, procedures, and their roles during an emergency situation. They provide an opportunity to review and discuss existing protocols in a low-pressure environment, ensuring that everyone understands the plans and can effectively execute them when necessary.

In addition, discussion-based exercises often engage key stakeholders and allow them to explore potential scenarios, identify gaps in planning, and clarify the roles and responsibilities of each participant. This helps bolster overall preparedness and facilitates a common understanding of the strategies that would be employed in actual emergency events. Thus, their primary aim is to enhance awareness and comprehension rather than to test operational capabilities, which is a hallmark of other exercise types, such as field exercises or simulation exercises.