LI Course
CE Hours: 3 contact hours

Partnership: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview: Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview: The purpose of this course is to educate state and local public health officials on the latest information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on preparing for radiological and nuclear terrorism incidents. In 2003, CDC established a cooperative agreement with the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) to conduct research assessing public health workforce preparedness for possible scenarios (e.g., dirty bomb, improvised nuclear device) for a terrorist event involving radiation. The research indicated that public health workers were unprepared for a radiological incident and did not understand their role. CDC initiated the development of a public health tool kit that provides education, skills training, public education tools, and guidelines for public health response to large scale radiological incidents. This new tool kit is now ready for release. This course will provide live excerpts of educational content from the tool kit on topics of key consideration: -radiation principles that impact public health planning; potential radiological and nuclear incident scenarios; the role of communications in public health response to a radiological incident; guidelines for conducting potential screening for radiological exposure and contamination; i.e. population monitoring; the role of local government in planning for response to a radiological incident; and pharmaceutical countermeasures from the strategic national stockpile used for treating radiation exposure. The various products in the public health tool kit, as well as the products in an additional CDC tool kit designed to prepare clinicians for medical response to radiological terrorism, will be reviewed with the participants. Suggestions for using the tool kit products to educate the public health work force will be provided. A sample public health and clinician tool kit will be provided for each course participant. A quiz will be provided before the course to assess pre-course knowledge. The answers to the quiz will be provided and discussed at the end of the course to enhance participant application of the concepts discussed during the lectures. This information is state-of-the-art, timely and relevant to the conference theme of public health without borders, given the global threat of terrorism and the international focus on protecting the public from its effects. The course faculty includes a doctorate level health physicist from the CDC, as well as a Masters-prepared registered nurse and a radiation health protection planner with the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE).

Session Objectives: 1. Discuss key principles of radiation exposure that impact public health planning for a radiological terrorism incident. 2. List three potential radiological and nuclear terrorism incident scenarios that could result in mass casualties. 3. Describe how an effective communications plan can positively impact public health preparedness for a radiological terrorism incident. 4. Describe the public health role in conducting radiological population monitoring following a radiological terrorism incident. 5. Discuss the role of local government in emergency response planning for a radiological terrorism incident. 6. Discuss key considerations in public health planning for distribution of pharmaceutical countermeasures following a radiological terrorism incident. 7. Describe how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tool kits for radiological terrorism preparedness could be used in emergency response planning.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing