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Delivering Flexible Education and Training to Health Professionals: Caring for Older Adults in Disasters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

Brian A. Altman ,
Kelly H. Gulley ,
Carlo Rossi ,
Kandra Strauss-Riggs  and
Kenneth Schor
Brian A. Altman
Affiliation:
The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc, Bethesda, Maryland
Kelly H. Gulley*
Affiliation:
The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc, Bethesda, Maryland
Carlo Rossi
Affiliation:
Canadian Armed Forces, Royal Canadian Medical Service, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Kandra Strauss-Riggs
Affiliation:
The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc, Bethesda, Maryland
Kenneth Schor
Affiliation:
National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Rockville, Maryland
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Kelly Gulley, MPH, Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc, National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, 11300 Rockville Pike, Suite 1000, Rockville, MD 20815 (e-mail: kelly.gulley.ctr@usuhs.edu).
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Abstract

The National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health (NCDMPH), in collaboration with over 20 subject matter experts, created a competency-based curriculum titled Caring for Older Adults in Disasters: A Curriculum for Health Professionals. Educators and trainers of health professionals are the target audience for this curriculum. The curriculum was designed to provide breadth of content yet flexibility for trainers to tailor lessons, or select particular lessons, for the needs of their learners and organizations. The curriculum covers conditions present in the older adult population that may affect their disaster preparedness, response, and recovery; issues related to specific types of disasters; considerations for the care of older adults throughout the disaster cycle; topics related to specific settings in which older adults receive care; and ethical and legal considerations. An excerpt of the final capstone lesson is included. These capstone activities can be used in conjunction with the curriculum or as part of stand-alone preparedness training. This article describes the development process, elements of each lesson, the content covered, and options for use of the curriculum in education and training for health professionals. The curriculum is freely available online at the NCDMPH website at http://ncdmph.usuhs.edu (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:633–637).

Keywords

disastersolder adultseducationtraininghealth professionalscurriculum
Type
Responder Tools
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , August 2016 , pp. 633 - 637
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2016 

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