• The Program's objective is to enhance the knowledge and skills of health care professionals to meet the public health preparedness and emergency response demands resulting from acts of bioterrorism and other incidents.
Institute of Rural Health Idaho State University
Idaho Bioterrorism Awareness and Preparedness Program

Competencies

Competency based learning

We are offering competency based training courses and exercises. Competency-based training:

Emergency Preparedness and Response Competency Sets for healthcare workforce

We have focused our efforts on core, cross cutting and discipline-specific competencies. The education and training opportunities we offer use existing competencies to guide and strengthen our curriculum development. These competencies reflect the Clinician Competencies During Initial Assessment and Management of Emergency Events developed by the Columbia University School of Nursing and Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine (List A) and the Bioterrorism and Emergency Readiness: Competencies for all Public Health Workers as developed by Columbia University’s School of Nursing Center for Health Policy (List B). Our target audience comprises of the healthcare workforce in the state of Idaho.  We offer training at three levels of proficiency namely awareness, intermediate/knowledgeable and advanced. These levels build on the foundation of the core competencies advanced by the Council on Linkages between Academia and Public Health Practice.

List A

The Columbia University School of Nursing and Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine Clinician Competencies During Initial Assessment and Management of Emergency Events http://www.nursing.hs.columbia.edu/research/ResCenters/chphsr/pdf/clinician-comps.pdf

A clinician practicing in an initial assessment and decision-making role will be evaluated on his/her ability to:

  1. Describe his/her expected role in emergency response in the specific practice setting as a part of the institution or community response;
  2. Respond to an emergency event within the emergency management system of his/her practice, institution and community;
  3. Recognize an illness or injury as potentially resulting from exposure to a biologic, chemical or radiological agent possibly associated with a terrorist event recognize uncommon presentations of common diseases and distinguish these from common presentations of uncommon diseases that may be related to a terrorist event or emerging infectious disease; recognize emerging patterns or clusters of unusual presentations;
  4. Institute appropriate steps to limit spread, including infection control, decontamination techniques, use of personal protective equipment;
  5. Report identified cases or events to the public health system to facilitate surveillance and investigation using the established institutional or local communication protocol;
  6. Initiate patient care within his/her professional scope of practice and arrange for prompt referral appropriate to the identified condition(s);
  7. Use reliable information sources regarding referral and management;
  8. Provide reliable information to others (e.g., institutional administration or media, as relevant to the specific practice site and emergency response protocol);
  9. Communicate risks and actions taken clearly and accurately to patients and concerned others;
  10. Identify and manage the expected stress/anxiety associated with emergency events, making referrals for mental health services if needed; and
  11. Participate in post-event feedback and assessment of response with local public health entities.

List B

Bioterrorism and Emergency Readiness: Competencies for all Public Health Workers developed by Columbia University’s School of Nursing Center for Health Policy.
A listing of core competencies  for all Public Health Workers is given below.
Additional emergency preparedness competencies associated with the healthcare role for leaders, professional, technical and support staff can be accessed at 
http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/nursing/institutes-centers/chphsr/btcomps.pdf

The following are the required core competencies for all public health workers:

  1. Describe the public health role in emergency response in a range of emergencies that might arise.
  2. Describe the chain of command in emergency response.
  3. Identify and locate the agency emergency response plan (or the pertinent portion of the plan).
  4. Describe functional role(s) in emergency response and demonstrate role(s) in regular drills.
  5. Demonstrate correct use of all communication equipment used for emergency communication (phone, fax, radio, etc.).
  6. Describe communication role(s) in emergency response:
    1. Within the agency using established communication systems
    2. With the media
    3. With the general public
    4. Personal (e.g. family, neighbors)
  7. Identify limits to own knowledge/skill/authority and key system resources for referring matters that exceed these limits.
  8. Recognize unusual events that might indicate an emergency and describe appropriate action (e.g., communicate clearly within the chain of command).
  9. Apply creative problem solving and flexible thinking to unusual challenges within functional responsibilities and evaluate effectiveness of all actions taken.

Competency related products

Evaluation resources

Competency-to-Curriculum Toolkit The Toolkit is developed from the dialogue of the Working Group on Competency-Based Curriculum of the Public Health Workforce Development Collaboration. 

Evaluating Readiness: Course Content and Program Evaluation BT training and Curriculum development program 

Enhancing Public Health Preparedness: Exercises, Exemplary Practices, and Lessons Learned. Assessing the Adequacy of Extant Exercises for addressing Local and State Readiness for Public Health Emergencies.

Sherpas, Backpacks, and Tools of the Trade: Scaling the Competency Summit Mary Hoeppner

Idaho Bioterrorism Awareness and Preparedness Program © 2007
Last Modified: 01/05/09 at 04:03:08 PM