Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112226

Ran D. Balicer, MD, MPH¹, Daniel Barnett, MD MPH², Cindy Parker, MD, MPH², Saad Omer, MD, MPH³, David Blodgett², Ayanna L. Fews, MBA⁴, and Jonathan Links, PhD². (1) Epidemiology and Health Management, Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, 27 Hagilgal st., Ramat-Gan, 52392, Israel, 972-54-757447, rbalicer@netvision.net.il, (2) Center for Public Health Preparedness, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Room WB030, Baltimore, MD 21205, (3) Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Room 5507, Baltimore, MD 21205, (4) MidAtlantic Public Health Training Center, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Suite W8510, Baltimore, MD 21205

Since 9/11, public health has seen a progressive cultural change toward a 24/7 emergency response organizational model. This transition entails new expectations for public health workers, including readiness and willingness to report to duty in emergencies, and an ability to communicate risk effectively to an anxious public. However, we must address whether these workers are willing to take these new roles; their likelihood of reporting to work during an emergency; and their ability to function as risk communicators during these extreme circumstances.

We believe these issues will be strongly influenced by the employees' risk perceptions, and that addressing certain key "risk perception modifiers" will allow improved functioning of the public health workforce during emergencies. We reviewed existing theoretical risk perception models, and applied them to explore the potential barriers and remedies to effective public health workforce emergency response.

We have set out to test these hypotheses by surveying a large number of public health employees in Maryland, inquiring about their willingness to report; their risk perception toward large-scale public health crisis scenarios; and practical barriers to effective response during different types of public health emergencies. We will discuss the results of this survey currently being conducted, and identify the main issues to be addressed within public health preparedness training that may promote a more favorable response of the public health workforce during an emergency.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the challenges facing public health personnel in adapting to their new roles during public health emergencies.
• Apply theoretical models to identify key factors in determining risk perceptions among the workers, and identify potential strategies for addressing these factors during training.
• Articulate evidence-based data regarding the willingness of public health workers to report to duty and their stated barriers for adequate response during different kinds of public health emergencies.

Keywords: Public Health Service, Risk Communication

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.