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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Frederick Slone, MD, Steve Morris, MD, RN, and Patricia A. Burns, PhD, RN, FAAN. College of Nursing, University of South Florida, 12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. MDC22, Tampa, FL 33612, 813-974-9641, fslone@hsc.usf.edu

Emergency and disaster preparedness of health care professionals is a national priority. When a catastrophic event occurs healthcare needs quickly exceed the availability of trained healthcare workers. Disaster training up to this point has focused on the emergency medical workforce. The majority of the health care workforce has been largely ignored. The federal government has recognized the need to establish an ever growing disaster management workforce, including nurses and doctors in all health care settings. Establishing disaster management training into the curriculum of all nursing and medical schools would help achieve this goal. Such a curriculum program would provide a workforce that would include all fields of medicine and nursing beyond just emergency responders and be a viable pool of trained healthcare professionals to respond to all types of disasters. This session will describe the development and implementation of an innovative disaster preparedness curriculum program at the University of South Florida, Colleges of Nursing and Medicine, to meet the competencies of basic and advanced disaster management. These competencies include the knowledge, skills, abilities to: (1) recognize indications of a terrorist event including nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, (2) meet the acute care needs of patients, (3) participate in a coordinated, multidisciplinary response to terrorist events and other public health emergencies, and (4) rapidly and effectively alert the public health system of such an event at the community, state, and national level. Upon completion of the training, nursing and medical students receive national certification from the American Medical Association.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this presentation, participants will

• Learn about innovative disaster preparedness training program for medical and nursing students.
• Be able to incorporate disaster preparedness training programs into nursing and medical curricula.
• Demonstrate how the disaster training programs will lead to national certification in Basic and Advanced Disaster Life Support.

Keywords: Disasters, Training

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation