Core Competencies for Disaster Medicine and Public Health

Abstract

<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:p>Effective preparedness, response, and recovery from disasters require a well-planned, integrated effort with experienced professionals who can apply specialized knowledge and skills in critical situations. While some professionals are trained for this, others may lack the critical knowledge and experience needed to effectively perform under stressful disaster conditions. A set of clear, concise, and precise training standards that may be used to ensure workforce competency in such situations has been developed. The competency set has been defined by a broad and diverse set of leaders in the field and like-minded professionals through a series of Web-based surveys and expert working group meetings. The results may provide a useful starting point for delineating expected competency levels of health professionals in disaster medicine and public health.</jats:p><jats:p>(<jats:italic>Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness</jats:italic>. 2012;6:44–52)</jats:p>

Surgical Care of Pediatric Patients in the Humanitarian Setting

“…[23][24][25][26][27] Studies such as ours may prove helpful in developing a baseline set of competencies, and possibly a competency-based curriculum, to help prepare surgeons and anesthetists interested in working in these settings. [28][29][30][31][32][33][34] This study had multiple limitations in data acquisition and processing, as well as in its generalizability beyond the specific settings of MSF-OCP's surgical projects. The classification system is not yet validated, and data are recorded in stressful and resource-poor environments where data fidelity may suffer.…”

Medical Allocations to Persons with Special Needs during a Bioterrorism Event

“…This study was not submitted to an Institutional Review Board, as it was a public health agency training event to prepare for a public health emergency and to educate disaster responders. This training was consistent with the Core Competencies and Sub competencies for Disaster Medicine and Public Health [19]. Specifically, the ability to describe the potential impact of a mass casualty incident on access to and availability of clinical and public health resources in a disaster or public health emergency.…”

Competencies for Disaster Mental Health

“…Two competency sets of particular importance for disaster health are Subbarao et al [23] and Walsh et al [22]. These competency sets were aimed at the broadest audience within the disaster health discipline and reflected a consensus of a wide group of experts, resulting in a robust set of consensusbased baseline core competencies for the discipline of disaster health (alternatively called disaster medicine and public health).…”

“…They also can serve as a learning guide for disaster health workers who wish to acquire and maintain disaster mental health competencies. Instructional objectives have been written and corresponding learning resources identified for disaster mental health [36••], and these objectives have been linked to existing core disaster health competencies [22]. Such curriculum development efforts could be strengthened, however, by having a comprehensive set of competencies specific to disaster mental health on which to base curricula.…”