Disaster Course Work

The Journal’s student work is pulled from the following classes.

Management of Public Health Disasters: Public health emergency preparedness has been defined as “the capability of the public health and health care systems, communities, and individuals, to prevent, protect against, quickly respond to, and recover from health emergencies that threaten to overwhelm routine capabilities.” Preparedness involves coordination between all responsible entities and the engagement of the general public. Effective preparedness also requires program implementation and evaluation. There are four categories of public health emergencies: (1) the intentional or accidental release of chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) agent; (2) epidemics and pandemics; (3) natural disasters, such as hurricanes or floods; and (4) man-made environmental disasters, such as oil spills. In this course, students will be introduced to concepts such as hazard identification and assessment, mitigation (prevention), preparedness, response, and recovery. Students will apply their new skills and knowledge to address a wide range of natural and man-made disaster events of concern to public health. The course also includes legal/ethical considerations, psychological impacts of disasters, community resiliency, planning for the needs of vulnerable populations, the role of community based organizations, including faith based organizations, and other topics relevant to disaster management. In this course students will have an opportunity to conduct an interview with a public health official, and for the culminating course project, students will develop a disaster plan (the equivalent of an annex) for their local department of health or for their workplace. Students also complete (no-cost) on-line FEMA ICS certification training as part of this course. Students explore threat and hazard identification, mitigation (prevention), preparedness, response, and recovery, and will apply their new skills and knowledge to address a wide range of natural and man- made disaster events of concern to public health. The course includes legal/ethical considerations, psychological impacts of disasters, community resiliency, planning for the needs of vulnerable populations, the role of community-based organizations, including faith-based organizations, and other topics relevant to disaster management. For the culminating project for this course, students will develop a disaster plan (the equivalent of an annex) for their local (or hypothetical) Department of Health. Students also complete (no-cost) on-line FEMA ICS certification training as part of this course.

Global Health Disaster Preparedness and Response: This course addresses Global Disasters from the perspective of Public Health Emergency Preparedness, which has been defined as “the capability of the public health and health care systems, communities, and individuals, to prevent, protect against, quickly respond to, and recover from health emergencies that threaten to overwhelm routine capabilities.” Preparedness involves coordination between all responsible entities and the engagement of the general public. Students also complete (no-cost), on-line FEMA ICS certification (no-cost) training as part of this course.