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A recent national assessment of emergency planning in Canada suggests that healthcare professionals are not properly prepared for disasters. In response to this gap, an interprofessional course in disaster management was developed, implemented, and evaluated in Toronto from 2007 to 2008. Undergraduate students in nursing, medicine, paramedicine, police, media, and health administration programs from Centennial College, the Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences, George Brown College, Ryerson University, and the University of Toronto, took the eight-week online course. Curriculum developers set interprofessional competency as a major course outcome right from the start, and this concept guided content and activity development. The course was highly interactive and included video, a discussion forum, an online board game, and the opportunity to participate in a mock disaster simulation with professional staff.
Methods:
A research study, funded by Health Canada, was conducted using quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the impact of the course on students' disaster management competencies and interprofessional attitudes.
Results:
Results indicate that the online course and simulation exercise provided an excellent opportunity for undergraduate students to learn and practice inter-professional collaboration, develop disaster management skills, and develop empathy for victims.
Conclusions:
Results underscore the necessity of extensive inter-institutional collaboration regarding simulation planning, curriculum development, and faculty training. The session should be of interest to emergency and disaster educators, heakhcare professionals, policy-makers, and researchers.
A review of humanitarian interventions suggested a reform based on three pillars: appointment of a Humanitarian Coordinator; an emergency fund; and the cluster approach for more predictability, efficiency, and accountability in a specific sector with an appointed leader. The cluster approach started late 2005 with some pilot countries in Africa, was followed by other countries. So far, Africa has been the wider cluster experience area. This paper will present different case studies and to highlight lessons learned.
Methods:
Seven cases from African countries were studied. Cases were analyzed based on a developed framework that took different factors into account. Data were collected from field visits and from exiting documents.
Results:
The cluster approach was adopted using different models based on existing coordination structures, government structures and implications, and the presence of a Health Coordinator or an existing emergency body.
The cluster approach has improved sectoral programming in humanitarian responses in the field. It provided stronger and more predictable leadership across sectors, improved preparedness and surge capacities. However, it lacked clear guidance in implementation as well as resources for effective coordination in the field, which are successes. There was a lack of understanding of the concept which made non-governmental organizations reluctant to adhere to a cluster approach.
Conclusions:
The success of implementation of the cluster approach required flexibility for an appropriate model in order to be adopted. A participatory approach and transparency are required to bring all partners on board.
During a disaster, victims with varied morbidities are located at incident sites, while healthcare facilities with varied healthcare resources are distributed elsewhere. Transportation serves an essential equilibrating role: it helps balance the patients' need for care with the supply of care. Studying the special case of New York City, this article sets out the healthcare transportation components as: (1) incident morbidity; (2) transportation assets; and (3) healthcare capacity. The relationship between these three components raises an assignment problem: the management of healthcare transportation within a dynamic and partly unpredictable incident-transportation-healthcare nexus, under urban disruption. While the routine dispatch problem can be tackled through better geographic allocation software and technical algorithms, the disaster assignment problem must be confronted through real-time, mutual adjustment between institutions. This article outlines institutional alternatives for managing the assignment problem and calls for further research on the merits of alternative institutional models.
Recently, many reports have shown that women have been the perpetrators of acts or of terrorism are being actively recruited by terrorist organizations. Female-initiated terrorist attacks have occurred in India, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Chechnya, and Jordan. Achieving a better understanding of women who become supporters or perpetrators of terrorist acts can assist in planning, preparing, and deterring terrorist attacks, and minimizing the morbidity and mortality from these events.
Methods:
A review of scientific, medical, and academic literature pertaining to women and terrorist activities was performed. In addition, government reports and media accounts of terrorist attacks where women were direcdy or centrally involved as perpetrators were collected and reviewed. Common elements, themes, and similarities were analyzed to determine trends in terrorist activities involving women as perpetrators, planners, facilitators, and active supporters of specific terrorist incidents.
Results:
A variety of factors that influence women into participating in terrorist activities have been discussed by various authors and researchers. In addition to coordinating and participating in terrorist attacks, there have been several additional areas of involvement of women in support of domestic and international terrorism, as well as specific tactical reasons tliat terrorist organizations seek out vulnerable women to exploit and recruit into roles within their organizations.
Conclusions:
A greater understanding of the psychosocial, behavioral, and socio-economic factors that influence women to become active supporters, facilitators and/or perpetrators of terrorist acts across the globe is essential to mitigating these incidents and protecting the health and safety of the public. Further research is needed to explore methods to identify women who may be vulnerable to recruitment by terrorist groups, in order to attempt to prevent the extent of these attacks on nations across the globe.