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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Jennifer A. Horney, MA, MPH and Rachel Wilfert, MD, MPH. North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 8165, 400 Roberson, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, 919-966-4085, rachel_wilfert@unc.edu

In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed a foundational course, Public Health Emergency Law. The North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness (NCCPHP) at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health (SPH) worked with state partners in West Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee to adapt the course to state-specific public health emergency law and develop case-studies based on local events to test participant mastery of materials presented in didactic sessions.

Each one-day course included didactic and practice-based examples of isolation and quarantine and management of property during an emergency. Small groups with representation from multiple professional areas (i.e. public health administration, epidemiology, medicine, law, emergency management, public health laboratory, occupational and environmental health) completed two tabletop scenarios of a public health emergency to apply materials covered in the didactic session. A matched T-test of pre- and post-test scores were significant at the <.0001 level, showing marked improvement in participant knowledge in each training.

Other evaluation findings included: 99% of participants indicated that making the information specific to state law made the course particularly useful; 99% of participants preferred the small group size and the ability to “practice” what they learned with tabletop scenarios; 88% of participants indicated that they would change their behavior based on the course, including reviewing the current public health laws and increasing their focus on networking with other organizations.

The Public Health Emergency Law foundational course is an effective training tool when adapted with specific local laws and case study examples.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the development of a one-day training course for public health professionals based on the CDC foundational course.
• Describe the development of local case studies to test participant learning from didactic content.
• Evaluate participant learning through observed knowledge improvement as well as pre- and post-test results.

Keywords: Emergency, Problem Based Learning

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Handout (.pdf format, 186.3 kb)