Designing a pilot course for health students on emergency preparedness and special needs populations

Recent disasters highlight the need of a more informed and prepared public. Those with special needs may be particularly in need of preparation for and assistance in disasters, yet many state plans do not directly address these populations. Working off the premise that health professions' students are a natural population for disaster management training, an interdisciplinary and inter-organizational committee designed and delivered a week long pilot course at a small university in the Midwest for disaster management with a focus on special needs populations. The committee consisted of professors of nursing, physical therapy, athletic training, communication, and emergency medicine, and organizations including a small private university, a medical school, the Red Cross, the region's hospital and community emergency management representative and the county's developmental disabilities advisory committee. The course augmented FEMA and AMA disaster modules with 2.5 days of lecture/small group discussion and 1.5 days of functional lab exercises for 34 students (undergraduate nursing and athletic training as well as graduate physical therapy). Faculty assigned to small groups of students taught chemical exposure/injury triage in a half-day lab with standardized patients and mannequins. A second half-day simulation included an incident command center and simulated patients. This presentation will highlight lessons learned from the experience of designing and delivering this class. Evaluation data from the course is under analysis and will be used to improve curriculum content and delivery. The re-designed curriculum is to be made available to other educational agencies that may want to replicate aspects of the course.