Competency-Based Standardized Training for Humanitarian Providers: Making Humanitarian Assistance a Professional Discipline

Abstract

The number of people employed in international humanitarian care is growing at a yearly rate of 6%. The demand for better coordination, accountability, and training has led to a need for standardized humanitarian training programs for providers. Training should be based on comprehensive core competencies that providers must demonstrate in addition to their skill-specific competencies. This report explores the competencies specific to humanitarian training that are practice- and application-oriented, teachable, and measurable. Competency-based, standardized programs will be used to select humanitarian workers deployed in future crises and to guide the professionalization of this discipline.

Innovation in Graduate Education for Health Professionals in Humanitarian Emergencies

“…The program has become a flagship certificate program at RSPH because of the ability for students to interact with leaders in the field at the CDC; over the course of the two-year Master of Public Health (MPH) program, students must complete two foundational courses in humanitarian emergencies, at least one advanced methods course, and six credit hours of approved elective courses. 9 The foundational courses cover a wide range of topics (Table 1). …”

The Professionalization of International Disaster Response: It Is Time for Midwives to Get Ready

“…(See Table for a list of several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that are active in disaster response.) Responsible and effective NGOs will train their volunteers in the distinctive aspects of providing health services in a humanitarian crisis context, including field operations administration, codes of conduct, security issues, and core competencies, which are briefly discussed below.…”

“…In an effort to standardize training so that all humanitarian workers are educated in the operational issues discussed above, core competencies for humanitarian health professionals have been proposed . Several competencies are recommended for all VHPs, such as mass casualty triage and biohazard protection, whereas other competencies are specific to public health or clinical specialties . In 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) was the first to outline 6 core competencies that addressed the unique contributions of midwives and nurses during humanitarian emergencies (see Table ) .…”

“…They usually assist with efforts to provide gynecologic and perinatal clinical services, support maternal–child public health activities, help rebuild the maternity health care infrastructure, or contribute to restoring midwifery education. However, most volunteer health practitioners (VHPs), including midwives, do not have the clinical or cross‐cultural training and experience that prepare them to function effectively in crisis settings . The purposes of this article are to inform certified nurse‐midwives (CNMs) and certified midwives (CMs) about the professionalization of disaster health care, review preparation and deployment considerations, and discuss several clinical realities of providing clinical care in catastrophic situations.…”

The Australian medical response to Typhoon Haiyan

“…Sudden‐onset disasters attract a wide variety of responders, from clinicians trained specifically in humanitarian and disaster response to well meaning but untrained individuals or teams. As seen over a number of natural disasters in the 20th and 21st centuries, significant harm to a disaster‐affected population can be caused by foreign medical teams who are either untrained in disaster medicine or poorly resourced and not self‐sufficient 5 …”