Just-in-Case Training: Developing a streamlined and effective method to prepare RN faculty and students for disaster response

How did the Katrina aftermath in Austin Texas impact curriculum at the University of Texas School of Nursing? The School of Nursing has long been involved in disaster preparedness activities. Last semester undergraduates receive content on preparedness in public health nursing courses. Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, we made a quick decision to switch our public health nursing clinical practicum to the Austin Convention Center, working with Katrina evacuees. A few months after Katrina, the City of Austin Health and Human Services Medical Director approached the School of Nursing with a request to formalize our relationship in the event of future disasters. Because of our experience post-Katrina, the talent that we have at the School of Nursing, and the interest from the City of Austin, we devised a one and a half hour Just-in-Case training. The intent of the training is to prepare nurses (faculty, staff, and graduate students), as well as our nursing students, for participation in a disaster response network. Our focus includes mass sheltering, mass immunizations and community health teaching. We have piloted the training twice (Fall 2006 and Spring 2007) and have modified the content and length of the session. We plan for the training to be available as online self-study, by late 2007. The Just-in-Case Training incorporates a framework for disaster preparedness, key agencies, the Incident Command Structure, basic principles, and disaster phases; triage; shelter care, shelter organization, preventing the spread of disease in a shelter, and working with special or vulnerable populations. The disaster mobilization plan developed by the School of Nursing is now serving as a model for the College of Pharmacy and the School of Social Work at the University of Texas, under the umbrella of the University of Texas Emergency Preparedness Division.