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American Public Health Association
133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition
December 10-14, 2005
Philadelphia, PA
APHA 2005
 
3145.0: Monday, December 12, 2005 - Board 3

Abstract #111139

Evaluating competency-based training for public health emergency preparedness

Thomas Reischl, PhD, Health Behavior & Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 109 Observatory Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, 734 763-5568, reischl@umich.edu and Amy Sarigiannis, MPH, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 400 NIB, Room 4155 SON, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0482.

This presentation describes how the Michigan Academic Center for Public Health Preparedness (MI-CPHP) responded to the challenge and urgency in delivering competency-based preparedness training and documenting its impact utilizing a responsive evaluation approach. We provide an overview of how emergency preparedness courses are developed to enhance specific preparedness competencies. We describe the development of pretest-posttest evaluation designs to document the impact of training activities on knowledge and competency gains and how we use posttest-only evaluation designs were used for shorter awareness training activities. The development of evaluation instruments is described with a focus on being responsive to the specific goals of each training activity. We noted statistically significant improvements by course participants in key content knowledge and self-rated competencies. Responses on open-ended questions provided participants' perspectives on how the training activities improved specific knowledge and skills. The impact of taking a pretest revealed a modest, but statistically significant effect on the self-rated competencies and a non-significant effect on the content knowledge scores. The participants rated the comprehensive courses highly on a number of dimensions. A summary of the results and their implications is followed by a discussion about taking a responsive approach to evaluation the training activities of the MI-CPHP. We also review the challenge of evaluating the impact of knowledge-focused training activities on the development of performance competencies.

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

Keywords: Training, Evaluation

Related Web page: mipreparedness.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Emergency Preparedness and Public Health Capacity

The 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition (December 10-14, 2005) of APHA