271002 Medical Reserve Corps: Establishing an university-affiliated MRC

Monday, October 29, 2012

Trish O'Day, MSN, RN, CNS , School of Nursing, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Background and Issues: Discussion began in 2010 at our School of Nursing for establishing a Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). In accordance with Healthy People 2020, the intent for creating a MRC at our 50,000 student university, is to ‘”reduce the time necessary to activate designated personnel in response to a public health emergency”. MRC volunteers will assist in University response to public health emergencies on campus (if activated by leadership) and also assist proactively at university-sponsored events.

Description: This initiative was and continues to be a graduate nursing student project in a sequence of public health nursing courses. Mentoring is provided by faculty, with oversight from the Disaster Preparedness Committee. Our intent is to limit this MRC to licensed health professionals (Nursing, Pharmacy and Social Work) or graduate students pursuing licensure. A pilot group of MRC enrollees (Nursing) will be established by May 2012. Training will be online at first, with mock disaster scenario drills developed for early 2013. A state registry will allow analysis of licensure and training data, for future MRC expansion.

Lessons Learned: • Challenges arise in seemingly simple decisions: should this be a student organization or a faculty organization? • Liability concerns need to be addressed early in the development process.

Recommendations: A pool of health professions skills exists at many U.S. universities that can be used during an organized disaster response. Schools of Nursing can take the lead in establishing such organizations for the broader campus.

Learning Areas:
Other professions or practice related to public health
Program planning
Protection of the public in relation to communicable diseases including prevention or control
Public health or related nursing

Learning Objectives:
1. Analyze disaster preparedness needs at your university. 2. Analyze strengths and barriers to establishing a MRC. 3. Differentiate between a university-affiliated MRC and a community-wide MRC.

Keywords: Disasters, Community Participation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am one of the core members developing this initiative, at my School of Nursing.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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