Proposals for aligning disaster health competency models.

To standardize the key building blocks of disaster health competency models (content, structure, and process), we recommend a reinterpretation of the research, development, test, and evaluation construct (RDT&E) as a novel organizing framework for creating and presenting disaster health competency models. This approach seeks to foster national alignment of disaster health competencies. For scope and completeness, model developers should consider the need and identify appropriate content in at least 4 broad areas: disaster-type domain, systems domain, clinical domain, and public health domain. The whole disaster health competency model should reflect the challenges of the disaster setting to acknowledge the realities of disaster health practice and to shape the education and workforce development flowing from the model. Additional issues for consideration are whether competency models should address response and recovery just-in-time learning and whether the concept of "daily routine doctrine" can contribute to disaster health competency models. The recommendations seek to establish a strategic reference point for disaster competency model alignment within the health workforce.