'Disastrous' Learning

An F4 tornado and flash floods have hit. The massive storm has left in its wake blocked roads, power failures, an overturned tanker carrying toxic chemicals, and unconfirmed deaths.

Will you make the right decisions to protect the community's health in this time of emergency?

That's the scenario behind Disaster in Franklin County, a new public health simulation from the SPH's Center for Public Health Preparedness (CPHP). The simulation offers a way for public health professionals to apply their skills to an interactive reality-based emergency scenario.

The simulation will also be used to evaluate course content of the school's certificate program and M.P.H. focus in bioterrorism and emergency readiness, offered in the Public Health Practice major. Learners make decisions on behalf of a public health nurse, an environmental health specialist, and a county public health director.

By dealing with the emergency from different perspectives, players gain a deeper understanding of the complex issues at hand.

"It's important to cross-train," says SPH assistant education specialist Amy Scheller. "In emergencies, public health workers often take on expanded responsibilities."

To make the training relevant, the SPH team worked with an advisory board of public health professionals from Minnesota and North Dakota. The end product is one that focuses on risk communication, food safety, mental health issues, and incident command systems.

The advisory board members also said they wanted the training to address not just the immediate response of emergency workers but also the more long-term response efforts.

"The simulation follows a scenario for weeks, not just days," says Debra Olson, CPHP primary investigator. "It focuses on what public health does down the road from the time of a disaster."

Disaster in Franklin Country is available at no cost at http://cpheo.sph.umn.edu/umncphp/franklincounty.