About the Course

This course is designed to introduce students to the concepts and models of public health preparedness and response for all hazards emergency management. It will enable health care and allied health professionals, public health professionals, and emergency responders to work together to plan and respond effectively to both natural and man made disasters.

The course will introduce students to the identified core competencies of emergency health preparedness for public health professionals which include: functional roles, communication, resource identification, problem solving, and evaluation.

The issues of mental health and special populations will be introduced in an emergency management context. Students will utilize problem based learning by analyzing actual disaster events and applying the theories, principles, and practice of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. In addition, students will learn about the importance of personal emergency preparedness, which will include the development of their own emergency plan.

Objectives

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Describe the public health system's role and functional response roles in all-hazards emergency response.
   Understand the phases of disaster management.
2. Describe the chain of command in emergency response.
   Identify resources within the federal government, state government, non-profit, and local emergency response systems.
   
3. Explain an incident command structure and the role of integration and communication across various emergency response organizations.
   
4. Develop a risk hazards assessment and explain its role in emergency management.
   
5. Understand the contribution and process of preparedness evaluation and after-action evaluation within emergency management.
   
6. Develop a personal emergency preparedness plan, and explain what citizens can do to plan for an emergency.