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Disaster Information Model Curriculum

Curriculum Implementation
Learning Objectives
Curriculum Levels and Contact Hours
Adding Educational Activities to the Curriculum
Topics
Feedback on Curriculum
Appendix A: Courses on Disaster Health Topics
Appendix B: Conference Attendance

The goal of the Disaster Information Model Curriculum is to develop the capacity of librarians and other interested professionals to support their institutions and communities throughout the disaster/emergency cycle of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. This model curriculum may be adopted and adapted by any organization interested in providing training on disaster information. The suggested curriculum is based on reviews and assessments conducted by the National Library of Medicine Disaster Information Management Research Center.

 

Curriculum Implementation
This model curriculum proposes continuing education (classroom or online) course topics and educational activities that introduce disaster health information, its uses, and the potential roles for those interested in participating in disaster health information-related activities. Professional associations and other organizations that award continuing education credit may use the model curriculum as the basis for evaluating or offering single courses or outlining a course of study acknowledged by a certificate. The model curriculum proposes continuing education certificates (i.e. documentation of hours of participation) at a Basic and an Advanced level, with a requirement of 15 course contact hours at the Basic level and 12 contact hours of courses and/or activities at the Advanced level. The curriculum is intended to encourage students to pursue a combination of continuing education instruction along with participation in activities that provide exposure to disaster management practices.

The model curriculum describes:
  • Individual courses and activities. Students may take any courses of interest to them and choose whether or not to receive continuing education credit from an association or organization that documents continuing education efforts. Most courses may be taken in any order; some may specify prerequisites.
  • Certificate program. Students may take courses and participate in activities with the goal of following the model curriculum requirements as outlined for Basic level and/or Advanced level. Students may choose to document their activities and seek acknowledgement of their efforts from an association or organization that documents their completion of the program.
Learning Objectives
[Based on Disaster and Emergency Management for Information Professionals, a course developed by Ana Cleveland, University of North Texas]

The participants who complete the curriculum will be able to:
  • Define basic terminology and concepts related to disasters/emergencies
  • Recognize organizations, local to global, involved in disasters/emergencies
  • Recognize disaster/emergency communication systems and processes
  • Identify the technology utilized in disasters/emergencies
  • Recognize the psychological and sociological impact of disasters/emergencies
  • Explain the role of information professionals in disasters/emergencies
  • Recognize and assess the information behavior of the populations involved in disasters/ emergencies
  • Recognize the communication and cultural needs of the populations involved in disasters/emergencies
  • Identify and use disaster/emergency information resources, especially health information resources
  • Implement an outreach program on disaster/emergency issues for responders and public
  • Understand legal and ethical principles for the populations involved in disasters/emergencies
Curriculum Levels and Contact Hours

Basic level: 15 contact hours.
There are 5 required courses at this level. Each course is 3 hours for a total of 15 hours. Two of the courses are available online at no cost from the FEMA Emergency Management Institute. The required courses are:

Advanced Level: an additional 12 contact hours.
Courses and activities at this level (totaling 12 hours) may come from a variety of sources and be in many different formats. Students are encouraged to suggest additional activities for inclusion in the model curriculum. Some activities are approved for contact hours only for the library workforce in order to give them experiences that would not otherwise be a part of their routine activities; those activities are labeled “FOR LIBRARY/INFORMATION WORKFORCE.” Other activities are suggested only for the disaster workforce to provide training on topics outside their usual background; the activities or courses are labeled “FOR NON-HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARIANS AND DISASTER WORKFORCE.”

The following courses and activities are proposed for contact hours at the Advanced level:
  • Continuing education courses developed and/or approved by the Medical Library Association (MLA) specifically for contact hours for an Advanced level disaster information curriculum.

  • Up to 10.5 hours may qualify for Advanced level for attendance at or viewing of the Disaster Information Outreach Symposium. See http://www.cech.mlanet.org/node/585 for information on viewing the symposium, which will be available for MLA CE credit until at least March 2013.

  • Up to 2 hours may qualify for Advanced level for courses on disaster preparedness for libraries and their staff, collections, and continuity of services. Longer courses may be submitted but will only qualify for up to 2 hours. Approved courses may include:

  • Courses on disaster health topics developed by or funded by federal government agencies and other authoritative sources. See Appendix A. Students are encouraged to suggest additional courses for inclusion.

  • Non-course continuing education activities focused specifically on disaster health information and related topics that are approved for continuing education credit by a professional association according to the association’s CE guidelines. For example, these may include symposia, satellite and video teleconferences, webcasts, webinars, independent reading programs, journal clubs and similar.

  • Up to 12 hours may qualify for Advanced level for college and graduate school course(s) that focus directly on disaster health information and related topics.

  • FOR LIBRARY/INFORMATION WORKFORCE: Up to 12 hours may qualify for Advanced level for attendance at disaster-related national, tribal, regional, state or local conferences that have a strong educational component. See Appendix B for a list of suggested conferences. Students are encouraged to suggest additional conferences for inclusion on this list.

  • FOR LIBRARY/INFORMATION WORKFORCE: Completion of the CERT Basic Training classroom course based on the national Community Emergency Response Team curriculum qualifies for up to 8 hours at the Advanced level. Start here to find a local classroom course: https://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/index.shtm.

  • FOR LIBRARY/INFORMATION WORKFORCE: Completion of the online Introduction to Community Emergency Response Teams qualifies for 4 hours at the Advanced level. http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/IS317

  • FOR LIBRARY/INFORMATION WORKFORCE: Completion of American Red Cross Disaster Response Training courses for Disaster Action Team volunteers qualifies for up to 8 hours at the Advanced level. Contact your local Red Cross for training information; there is no single online source for this information.

  • FOR LIBRARY/INFORMATION WORKFORCE: Up to 2 hours qualifies for Advanced level for participation in or observation of a live disaster drill, exercise, or tabletop exercise conducted by an institution’s or community’s emergency planning (or similar) group.

  • FOR LIBRARY/INFORMATION WORKFORCE: Up to 2 hours qualifies for Advanced level for attendance at and observation of meetings of an institution’s or community’s emergency planning (or similar) group.

  • FOR NON-HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARIANS AND DISASTER WORKFORCE: Up to 6 hours qualifies for Advanced level for courses on PubMed, MeSH, MedlinePlus, evaluating health information on the Internet, and/or TOXNET. Contact your Regional Medical Library for information on courses offered at local medical libraries. National and regional courses are listed under "Training"at http://nnlm.gov/training/.
Adding Educational Activities to the Curriculum
Students are encouraged to suggest additional educational activities that may qualify for contact hours towards completing the program of study. Associations and organizations that award CE contact hours may also suggest additions. Activities should focus directly on disaster health information and related topics.
Topics
These topics are listed as a guide to the broad subject areas appropriate for courses and activities. Within these broad subject areas, the primary focus of the course/activity should be on the health information aspects of these topics:
  • Disaster events
  • Populations and special populations
  • Health communication, health messaging
  • Communications of all types: Internet-based, print, TV, radio, ham radio
  • Disaster medicine
  • Disaster mental health
  • Disaster planning
  • Environmental health
  • Disaster health research
  • Public health emergencies, disease outbreaks
  • Law and ethics information resources
  • CBRNE and hazmat information resources
  • Public health
Feedback on Curriculum
Please send comments and suggestions to:

Cindy Love
Technical Information Specialist
Disaster Information Management Research Center
Specialized Information Services Division
National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health
2 Democracy Plaza, Suite 510
6707 Democracy Blvd.
Bethesda, MD 20892-5467
301-496-5306
cindy_love@nlm.nih.gov
Appendix A: Courses on Disaster Health Topics
For the Advanced level, students may submit the actual number of hours (up to a maximum of 12) for taking courses developed by or with funding from HHS, FEMA, CDC, DHS and other federal government agencies, state agencies, or other qualified, authoritative training sources. Students are encouraged to select courses relevant to the topics and audiences with whom they interact.

The following are sources and examples of online courses that may qualify for hours towards the Advanced level:
  • National Environmental Health Association courses funded by CDC, listed at http://nehacert.org/moodle/course/category.php?id=12, for example, CDC0701: Environmental Health Training in Emergency Response. CDC-funded courses are available for non-members at no cost.

  • Courses (that are available and up-to-date) listed in the Resource Guide for Disaster Medicine and Public Health. Use “Advanced Search” and select “Publication Type.” Then select “Instructional/Training Material.” Courses may be from universities, associations, government, international agencies, military, etc.

  • Courses listed in TRAIN. TRAIN is a database of national and state training on all public health topics. Select "Course Search" and then "Search" to look for courses listed under Emergency Management, Emergency Medical Services, Fire, Hazmat, Infectious Diseases, Injury/Violence/Trauma, Legal/Ethical, Mass Prophylaxis, and Terrorism/Emergency Readiness.
Appendix B: Conference Attendance
For the Advanced level, students may submit the actual number of hours (up to a maximum of 12) they attended conference or meeting sessions that presented educational content on disaster topics. The primary focus of an approved conference should be on disaster health-related topics presented in a non-commercial environment. Students are encouraged to suggest additional conferences for inclusion.

The following national and international conferences (and any of their regional conferences) are suggested: