Surge Capacity and Health System Preparedness

Slide Presentation by Terri Spear, Ed.M.

On March 2, 2004, Terri Spear, Ed.M., made a presentation at a Web Conference entitled National Public Health Strategy for Terrorism Preparedness and Response.

This is the text version of Ms. Spear's slide presentation. Select to access the PowerPoint® slides (178 KB).

National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program: Education and Training

Terri Spear, Ed.M.
Bioterrorism Education and Training Specialist
Emergency Preparedness Evaluation and Specialty Branch
Special Programs Bureau
Health Resources and Services Administration
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Rockville, MD

Slide 1

Program Mission

"Ready Hospitals and supporting health care systems to deliver coordinated and effective care to victims of terrorism and other public health emergencies."

Slide 2

Education and Training

• FY 02 Guidance - Secondary Priority.
• FY 03 Guidance - Optional Benchmark #5:
  • 89% of the jurisdictions addressed education and training directly.
  • 100% described educational activities.

Slide 3

Targeted Trainees

Slide contains a bar graph. The vertical axis is labeled "Percentage of Programs" and the horizontal axis is labeled with seven different target populations. The populations and the percentage of programs that target those professionals are as follow: Laboratory, 69.35%; Fire/Police/EMT, 64.52%; Medicine 64.52%; Mental Health, 62.90%; Nursing, 59.68%; Allied Health, 9.68%; Emergency Mgmnt, 0.00%.

Slide 4

Topics Addressed

Slide contains a bar graph. The vertical axis is labeled "Percentage of Programs" and the horizontal axis is labeled with nine different training topics. The topics and the percentage of programs that target that content are as follow: Worker Safety, 79.46%; Psychosocial, 69.53%; Biological, 59.68%; Chemical, 58.06%; Incident Command, 56.45%; Special Populations, 48.39%; Radiological, 45.16%; Risk Communication, 37.10%; and Explosives, 20.97%.

Slide 5

Educational Methodology

Slide contains a bar graph. The vertical axis is labeled "Percentage of Programs" and the horizontal axis is labeled with seven different educational methodologies. The topics and the percentage of programs that use certain methodologies are as follow: Face to Face, 69.35%; Distance Education, 61.29%; Dissemination of Written Materials, 51.61%; Tabletop Exercises, 50.00%; Field Exercises/Drills, 54.84%; Train the trainer, 41.94%; Library Development, 11.29%

Slide 6

The Overriding Question

• What percentage of the Nation's health care workforce is prepared to respond competently to a public health emergency?
  • Federal Response Today:
    • Progress reports—can't tell us.
  • State and Local Response Today:
    • Can't tell us.
  • Providers Response>
    • G. Caleb Alexander et al, "Ready and Willing? Physician Sense of Preparedness for Bioterrorism," Health Affairs, Oct. 2003.

Slide 7

Future Direction

• Assist awardees in transforming bioterrorism education from a focus on content alone:
  • Smallpox.
  • Anthrax.
  • Radiation Illness.
• Toward competencies:
  • All hospital employees should be able to describe their emergency response role and be able to demonstrate it during drills or actual emergencies.

Slide 8

Existing Bioterrorism Competencies

• Public Health.
• Medicine.
• Nursing.
• EMS.
• Hospital-based employees.
• Hospital administrators.

Slide 9

Expected Benefits of Competency-Based Education

• Programmatic definition and differentiation.
• Increased focus on obtaining the answers to the real question:
  • What percentage of our health care workforce is prepared to respond?
• Increased relationship between training and workplace applicability.
• Training outcomes are observable and therefore measurable.

Slide 10

Expected Benefits of Competency-Based Education

• Improved transferability and comparability of training:
  • Educational mapping.
• Efficiency in resource utilization.
• Clearer definition of health care provider preparedness.
• Expensive drills will have added utilization.

Slide 11

For more information on HRSA's National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program, go to: www.hrsa.gov/bioterrorism/

Current as of May 2004

Internet Citation:

National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program: Education and Training. Text version of a slide presentation at a Web conference—Education and Training for a Qualified Workforce. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/ulp/btsurgeau/speartxt.htm

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