Preparing Volunteer Nurses for Public Health Emergencies

Preparing public health nurses for pandemic influenza through distance learning.

As a global influenza pandemic appears imminent with the spread of avian influenza, the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) and the California Distance Learning Health Network (CDLHN) presented a live 90-min satellite broadcast and subsequent 2-hr small group problem-solving tabletop exercise to practice interventions needed to minimize the consequences of a pandemic event. Public h...

Preparing health professions students for terrorism, disaster, and public health emergencies: core competencies.

The recent increased threat of terrorism, coupled with the ever-present dangers posed by natural disasters and public health emergencies, clearly support the need to incorporate bioterrorism preparedness and emergency response material into the curricula of every health professions school in the nation. A main barrier to health care preparedness in this country is a lack of coordination across ...

Preparing nurses for global health care.

In 2009, the World Health Organization published a document proposing global standards for the initial education of professional nurses and midwives, and noted that although nearly 35 million nurses and midwives make up the largest cadre of health care workers globally, they are rarely involved in high level decision-making and policy development (1). The development of the standards addressed ...

Risk communication for public health emergencies.

This review defines crisis risk communication, traces its origins to a number of applied fields, and then shows how basic principles have become incorporated into emergency preparedness and risk communication for public health. Literature from four different disciplines that inform crisis risk communications are reviewed. These are (a) environmental risk communication, (b) disaster management, ...

Public health emergencies: What Counts?