Click here for a link to the RAND Pandemic Influenza Tabletop Exercise Template. It is customizable, so you can use it to see what a possible pandemic situation would like like for your area.

On Tuesday, in Richmond, Kentucky, the community took place in a mock disaster drill, simulating a release of a nerve agent. Here’s an article from Richmond Register explaining the event. I particularly like this quote at the end of the article, which gets at the heart of the importance of drills.
“If you’re not finding out anything new [from the drill], then you’re probably not exercising as seriously as you should be.”

Click on the link below to see a PowerPoint presentation that I put together yesterday for disaster training. The purpose of the training was to introduce Circulation staff to the parts of our disaster plan that they will need to master in order to respond confidently to an emergency situation. The actual training will now be carried out by our Circulation supervisor.

milestones-to-mastery.ppt

Does anyone have a sure-fire method for disaster training? Susan and I were talking about this yesterday and we agree that without solid training a disaster plan is just words on paper. We’re attempting to develop a focused training method where staff are trained by guidelines rather than procedures, incorporating a coding system to improve initial response. We’ll keep you posted as this develops.

Here’s an article from BMC Medical Education on developing competencies for disaster planning. We’re going to see if we can adapt the compentencies listed in the article with our disaster training.