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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Robyn R.M. Gershon, MHS DrPH, Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, 600 west 168th st, 4th floor, New York, NY 10032, 212 305-1186, rg405@columbia.edu, Kristine Qureshi, RN, MSN, CEN, Center for Public Health Preparedness, Columbia University, 722 W. 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, Ayxa Calero-Breckheimer, PhD, Office of Scholarly Resources, Columbia University, 701 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, Jacqueline Merrill, MPH, RN, C, School of Nursing, Columbia University, Center for Health Policy, 630 West 168 Street, GB 244, New York City, NY 10032, and Marissa Barrera, Columbia University, Division of Sociomedical Sciences, 600 West 168 street, New York, NY 10032.
The recent events in NYC have highlighted the importance of emergency preparedness. Members of the Columbia University Center for public health preparedness, working with their partners in NYC Department of Health developed and administered a training program designed to ensure that public health nurses could safely and effectively fulfill their public health role in case of a public health emergency. In June of 2001, a pilot program was tested with a small group of 54 public health nurses. Normally these nurses provide care to school children throughout the NYC area. The training was accompanied by a pre/post test and one of the more compelling findings from the pilot study was the fact that nurses were very eager to respond if called upon, but that they were not sure that they would be able to-- for a variety of reasons. The most important barrier that we identified was the lack of child care (24hours/7days a week). Another important barrier revolved upon the issue of communication; they were not sure how they would be notified, especially if the phone systems were inoperable (as many were on 9/11 and for days after). Based on these results, the training program was specifically adjusted for the emergency response training for New York City’s public health workforce. In particular, nurses were provided with information for developing a personal emergency plan so that they could appropriately respond to emergencies. It may be useful for emergency planners to similarly consider potential barriers to emergency response.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Public Health Education, Emergency
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.