The National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health (NCDMPH) is pleased to share this report of our second Learning in Disaster Health workshop. Additional workshop materials can be found on our Web site (http://ncdmph.usuhs.edu/KnowledgeLearning/2014-09EducationWorkshop.htm). Developing, hosting, and communicating the contents of this workshop help to partially fulfill our mission “to lead federal and coordinate national efforts to develop and propagate core curricula, education, training, and research in all-hazards disaster health.” The NCDMPH overtly crafted the agenda to champion the interdisciplinary nature of disaster preparedness, to employ proven practices and techniques from adult learning, and to select cutting-edge topics contributing to the development of a competent disaster workforce. The emerging evidence base for disaster health competency was foundational to the content of the workshop. The sharing of emerging knowledge was additionally fostered through a juried poster competition.
In building the content of the program, it was important to emphasize the relation of disaster preparedness to day-to-day health care operations, and this was effectively articulated by Brendan Carr, MD, MS. The emerging importance of the National Health Security Strategy (NHSS) as a shaping force to federal efforts and perhaps more so for aligning community-based efforts in building overall health system resilience was aptly described by Herbert Wolfe, PhD, in the Opening Keynote. The 2009 National Health Security Strategy as well as the draft 2015-2018 NHSS importantly and appropriately focus on developing a competent health professions workforce. Successful workforce development, particularly the application of knowledge, depends heavily upon a deep understanding of the sciences of adult learning (andragogy) and cognitive science, hence, the General Session lead by Marcia Hagen, PhD, and Kevin Thomas, PhD, MBA. Multiparticipant panels addressed key stakeholder perspectives in developing the competent disaster health workforce both generally and also specifically for disaster behavioral health. A multidisciplinary session focusing on the poorly studied but increasingly emphasized recovery phase of the disaster management cycle concluded the formal content of the first day.
The second day started with the announcement of the 3 top posters, which will be highlighted in NCDMPH webinars. A showcase comprising 13 different networking stations and promoting small group interaction and learning among participants was conducted. Two distinctly different panels were offered: one provided an interactive forum exploring the role of volunteers in expanding the capability and reach of the disaster health workforce, and the other focused on the increasingly recognized centrality of neighborhood social capital (connectedness) as foundational to community resilience. The workshop was closed by Arthur L Kellermann, MD, MPH, Professor and Dean, F Edward Hebert School of Medicine - “America’s Medical School,” Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (Bethesda, MD), who challenged the attendees with several tasks.
As shown by real-time observations and written feedback, attendees appeared to have found the workshop an engaging, energizing, and valuable learning experience. The staff of the NCDMPH looks forward to our third workshop, tentatively scheduled for 9–10 September 2015 at the same location, the Fort Myer Officer’s Club in Arlington, Virginia.
