Presenters:

Kenneth W. Schor DO, MPH, Acting Director, NCDMPH

Brendan G. Carr, MD, MS, Director, Emergency Care Coordination Center, Office of Policy and Planning, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response

Session summarized and reported by:

Elizabeth Brasington, Communications & Administrative Assistant, NCDMPH

Overall Key Session Points:

• ∙ The 2014 Learning in Disaster Health Workshop (LDH ’14) was a unique opportunity to engage in interagency conversations surrounding education and training in disaster health.

• ∙ Dr. Schor highlighted the importance of competency sets and their application to the NCDMPH’s work

• ∙ Dr. Carr emphasized the importance of disaster response preparedness. Otherwise, performance on the day of the event may suffer.

Session Summary:

The opening remarks session served to welcome workshop attendees to the 2014 Learning in Disaster Health workshop held at the Fort Myer Officers’ Club in Fort Myer, Virginia, on September 9-10, 2014.

Dr. Schor oriented the group to the workshop by sharing 2014 Learning in Disaster Health objectives:

• ∙ Explore concepts of adult learning in the context of disaster health.

• ∙ Highlight the implications of the latest research and practice for disaster health learning and performance and identify key areas for future research.

• ∙ Present a unique opportunity for collaboration among disaster health, human resource development and adult education professionals.

• ∙ Identify potential solutions for maximizing learning in a resource-constrained environment.

• ∙ Disaster education needs to be incorporated into day-to-day operations.

Dr. Schor then segued into an introduction of the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health’s (NCDMPH) founding, mission, and current work. NCDMPH was founded in 2008 by Homeland Security Presidential Directive-21. Additionally, the Center is an integral part of the National Health Security Strategy due to its focus on the disaster health workforce. NCDMPH is also a part of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and the two organizations mutually support each other’s missions.

Dr. Schor summarized the wealth of evidence-based learning resources the Center has produced.

The National Center also considers field research an integral part of its mission. These include research regarding disaster recovery after Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Irene as well as disaster education and training for health care coalitions. The National Center is also working with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the State of Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on a CDC grant that is focused on enhancing disaster public health worker’s sense of efficacy toward Hurricane Sandy Recovery. NCDMPH is specifically tasked with developing an educational intervention curriculum for disaster public health workers.

The National Center also applies disaster health core competencies in the production of its “Curriculum Recommendations for Disaster Health Professionals.” Educators and trainers working with health professionals can use this resource to tailor their disaster education curriculum in the following topics: the pediatric population, disaster behavioral health, and the geriatric population. A curriculum recommendation focused on public health law has just been released. All the curriculum recommendations are created in collaboration with subject matter experts and are peer reviewed.

Responding to current events with relevant resources is an important task to the National Center. After the 2013 Boston Marathon Explosion, NCDMPH recognized a teachable moment in the aftermath and produced a resource called “Resilience through Learning” which connects disaster health educators, trainers, and responders with links to relevant learning materials. Other “Resilience though Learning” topics include tornadoes, hurricanes and typhoons, wildfires, earthquakes, and winter weather. The National Center will also be developing a page on heat wave related resources.

NCDMPH currently runs a monthly webinar series on disaster health learning topics. The poster winners from Learning in Disaster Health 2014 will be invited to present their original research. The most recent webinar provided insightful knowledge on gender-related disaster health recovery issues.

Dr. Brendan Carr continued the conversation by discussing the Emergency Care Coordination Center (ECCC). The ECCC and the National Health Security Strategy (NHSS) share a common mission, which is the education and training standards in disaster medicine and public health. Overall, the ECCC is focused on helping the nation build preparedness.

Dr. Carr emphasized the importance of constantly incorporating daily disaster education into the everyday health system. Furthermore, there is no “one size fits all” in regards to disaster education. Each member of the health workforce needs the right size of information for the situation. We also need to start expanding our idea of the disaster health workforce. For example, what about the role of the front desk assistant in an office? How does that role affect the spread of infectious disease when patients are coming in and out of the office? When discussing disaster education, the health professions community needs to examine what disaster education looks like across the spectrum.

The session concluded with the quote from the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Dr Nicole Lurie, “If we can’t do it day to day, we can’t do it on game day.” This philosophy needs to be integrated into every level of the educational framework of the disaster health workforce. The ECCC and the National Center both provide resources, methods, and recommendations to strengthen this framework and increase the preparedness of the disaster health workforce.