142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

303914
A Framework for Public Health Nursing Emergency Preparedness Competencies

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Wednesday, November 19, 2014 : 11:00 AM - 11:15 AM

Lorraine Buckley, RN, BSN, MSN , County of Riverside Department of Public Health, Public Health Nursing, Riverside, CA
Hermia Parks, RN, PHN, MA , Public Health Nursing, Riverside County Department of Public Health, Riverside, CA
Preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters is a priority and a core function of public health that increasingly must be addressed in an environment of limited resources. Emergent events, including sudden mass casualty incidents, infectious disease outbreaks, or environmental disasters are occurring more frequently.  Responding to health threats from disasters challenges all those in the community.  Public health nurses (PHN) working in public health departments, play an important role in the response to disasters that affect communities.

The Riverside County Department of Public Health (RCDOPH) developed a training course to provide a comprehensive plan to prepare PHNs to respond to mass casualty events or acts of terrorism. The goals of the training course are to 1) Increase understanding of the PHN role in emergency response and increase willingness to respond in an emergency, and 2) Assess, evaluate, document and update the PHN workforce competence in emergency preparedness. The training course is offered to new hires and annually to existing staff and consists of competency overview and skills stations set up to provide opportunities for staff to practice and perform hands-on-skills.

The course was developed using PHN foundational principles to guide practice during emergencies.  The Quad Council of Public Health Nurses Organizations Tier 1 Core Competencies were used to identify line-staff PHNs as needing training for skills required for the delivery of Essential Public Health Services.

This session will share the steps in the development and evaluation of this innovative program designed to address Public Health Nursing workforce competencies.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Protection of the public in relation to communicable diseases including prevention or control
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related nursing

Learning Objectives:
Identify and increase understanding of the PHN role in disaster response. Discuss the PHN workforce competencies training and skills station for use in emergency preparedness.

Keyword(s): Emergency Preparedness, Nursing Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: This presenter has been working as a Public Health Nurse for over 20 years and has worked as an educator for 9 years in the nursing field. For the past 2 years the presenter has been involved in Public Health Nursing emergency preparedness and has been a lead developer of the nursing preparedness training.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.