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

Abstract #117560

Joshua Alexander, MPH, Center for Public Health and Disasters, UCLA, 1145 Gayley Avenue, Ste 304, Los Angeles, CA 90024, Steven J. Rottman, MD, UCLA Center for Public Health & Disasters, 1145 Gayley Ave Suite 304, Los Angeles, CA 90024, 310-794-0864, rottman@ucla.edu, and Kimberley I. Shoaf, DrPH, Center for Public Health and Disasters, University of California, Los Angeles, 1145 Gayley Avenue, Ste 304, Los Angeles, CA 90024.

The terrorist events of 2001 highlight the need for training students in the health professions to prepare for and respond to disasters. The UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters (CPHD) received a grant from HRSA to develop a curriculum to train students from public health, medicine, dentistry, nursing, and EMS to recognize and respond to bioterrorist events. The result is an interdisciplinary curriculum on an interactive CD-ROM that can be used by professional schools to integrate disaster training into their curriculum.

The course features interdisciplinary core content, discipline specific content, and two problem-based learning modules (PBL). Core material was adapted from a bioterrorism course offered by CPHD. With guidance from CPHD, faculty developed material specific to their discipline. In the first PBL, students work as an interdisciplinary team to respond to a common health emergency. The second PBL is discipline-specific. A tabletop exercise at the end of the course allows students to apply their knowledge and reinforces the interdisciplinary nature of public health emergencies. The course was piloted in Fall 2004 and modified based on qualitative analysis of student feedback.

Each discipline will implement the course in Spring 2005 using the standard academic review required by their school and UCLA.

Process and outcome evaluations will be conducted. Process evaluation includes documentation of course enrollment and a qualitative and quantitative course assessment. Outcome evaluation will be based on a self-assessment of the student's perceived preparedness, a written knowledge-based exam, and student performance in the tabletop exercise.

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

• Identify three benefits of using an interdisciplinary approach to training health professional students.
• Recognize the need to incorporate disaster preparedness training into health professional curricula.
• Articulate the utility of a hybrid problem-based learning curriculum to train health professional students in bioterrorism response.

Keywords: Bioterrorism, Disasters

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.