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

Abstract #113808

Melissa Alperin, MPH, CHES, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1525 Clifton Road, #107, Atlanta, GA 30322, 404-727-2928, malperi@sph.emory.edu, Kathleen R. Miner, PhD, MPH, CHES, Assoc. Dean for Applied Public Health, Rollins School of Public Health, 1518 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30329-4218, and Silvia Rabionet, Ed D, Associated Dean, University of Puerto Rico School of Public Health, Medical Science Campus, PO Box 365067, San Juan, PR 00936-5067.

With 9.05 million passengers traveling annually through its airport, Puerto Rico is not isolated from public health preparedness issues that face the mainland – yet neither the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico nor the University of Puerto Rico has a formal continuing education program to prepare its 57,000+ health professionals. Based on a need for preparedness training within Puerto Rico, the Emory Center for Public Health Preparedness applied for and received a supplement to establish a Center at the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). To build the capacity of UPR faculty in responding to public health emergencies, a mini-residency program was developed. Participating faculty are enrolled in a distance-based bioterrorism seminar offered by the Rollins School of Public Health. In addition, faculty travel to Atlanta twice to meet with public health preparedness colleagues at Emory, CDC, and in Georgia state and local public health. The purpose of these meetings is to explore how the School of Public Health and university play a role in preparedness education for the public health workforce; examine a range of contemporary issues in public health preparedness; and demonstrate the university's relationship with state and local public health infrastructure. Sessions are tailored for the each faculty member's interests and needs. As an outcome, participating faculty will examine the preparedness training needs within Puerto Rico and identify the University's role in the training and education of the health professionals in Puerto Rico.

Learning Objectives:

• - Describe the need for preparedness training in Puerto Rico.
• - Describe the Mini-Residency Program for UPR faculty.

Keywords: Workforce, Training

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.