Stephanie Faren, RN, MSN/MPH¹, Ferlie Villacorte, RN, MSN/MPH², and Marcia J. Liem, RN, BSN¹. (1) County of Los Angeles, Immunization Program, Bioterrorism Vaccine-Preventable Disease Unit, 3530 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 700, Los Angeles, CA 90010, 213-351-7800, sfaren@dhs.co.la.ca.us, (2) County of Los Angeles, Acute Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Vector-Borne Disease Unit, 313 N. Figueroa St., Rm.12, Los Angeles, CA 90012

In response to the September 11th attacks America has increased efforts to prepare for and respond to terrorism. These efforts include rebuilding our public health infrastructure to react to an attack. Due to its insidious nature, bio-terrorism situations are complex and involve multi-jurisdictional responses. Lessons learned in bio-terrorism preparedness resulted in the development an “all hazards” approach, requiring communities to marshal public and private response systems for a variety of emergency situations.

Through the process of bringing together different disciplines involved with preparedness planning, public health nurses working in the bio-terrorism program in Los Angeles County identified a disconnect between programmatic decision-makers and the nursing staff working in the community.

In reaction to this challenge, public health nurses in the County of Los Angeles, formed the Public Health Nurse Preparedness and Response Coalition. This coalition serves as a vital information conduit between the nurses who work on community-based preparedness and those developing the response plans.

The community (district) public health nurse consistently monitors the health status of the population through disease surveillance and investigation, community resource evaluation, and professional assessment. By tapping into these nurses’ skills as collaborators and educators, the public health system gains valuable allies assuring a safe and prepared population.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to

• Describe the relationship between public health infrastructure and response to multi-jurisdictional emergency situations.
• Articulate the importance of community-based nursing’s involvement in programmatic planning for multi-jurisdictional emergency situations.
• Discuss skills used to develop a public health nursing coalition.

Keywords: Coalition, Bioterrorism

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.