Pediatric Disaster Preparedness Curriculum Development Conference: Process and Recommendations

The National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health (NCDMPH) convened a Pediatric Disaster Preparedness Curriculum Development Conference on March 8-9, 2011 in Bethesda, Maryland. The purpose of the conference was to begin to address the unmet education and training needs of medical responders who care for children in a disaster. The products of this workshop will be utilized as contributory first steps in the process of developing a role-specific, competency based training program for pediatric disaster preparedness. In fulfillment of a recommendation from the National Commission on Children and Disasters (NCCD) and the Federal Education and Training Interagency Group (FETIG) – approved NCDMPH strategic plan, the planning committee developed the following conference objectives: •To initiate the development of the infrastructure and methodology needed to create a competency based pediatric disaster preparedness training program. •To demonstrate this approach by developing prioritized, role-specific education and training recommendations for select healthcare roles. •To demonstrate the capabilities of a public – private consortium for development of a disaster preparedness education and training program.