School of Nursing

National Disaster Health Course

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About the National Disaster Health Course

The School of Nursing, Kinesiology, and Health Sciences is a leader in the field of disaster management. Participants are exposed to disaster concepts throughout the curriculum, which includes an elective devoted solely to disaster preparedness. Faculty are engaged in research studying disaster training and have received federal funding for their endeavors. The school also works closely with the National Disaster Life Support Foundation to deliver core, basic and advance disaster preparation courses.

Courses

The program is a blended learning experience consisting of prerequisites, online courses, and an on-site immersion experience. 

Prerequisite courses: The prerequisite courses consist of two National Incident Management (NIMS) courses and the Basic Disaster Life Support course

Online courses: The interactive online courses include a variety of topics to prepare the health care worker to respond in disaster examples include Leadership and Coordination in Disaster, Hospital & Emergency Department Emergency Preparedness Vulnerable populations & Disaster Mental Health & Agent Specific Response.

On-site courses and a summative evaluation are designed to provide participants hands-on experience in a variety of disaster situations. Activities include: Ethical and legal issues during disasters with a team-based approach to solving common ethical and legal issues that can arise during a disaster,  triage and first aid approaches to disasters, specific disaster situations to include scene safety, evacuation of victims from a variety of disaster scenes, decontamination, patient movement, sheltering principles, and community assessment. The final day is devoted to the evaluation of student’s knowledge and skills in a team and individual environment.

Workforce Training

The facility is equipped with a decontamination tent, patient conveyor cart and other real-life disaster supplies that may be used for corporate training sessions. We are happy to work with you to tailor a training program that meets your specific needs and bring the training to your location. Please contact us to find out more about training options and related pricing.

Goals

  • Disaster-ready health leaders who provide coordinated and competent care as members of an interprofessional health care team in preparedness, response, or recovery.
  • Workforce development and maintenance as needed for national health security.
  • Training standardization during disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation to improve the nationwide performance of health care professionals.

Objectives

  • Foster informed, empowered health care teams and disaster-resilient communities
  • Ensure prevention or mitigation of environmental and other emerging threats to health: before, during and after disaster
  • Incorporate post-incident health recovery into planning and response
  • Foster integrated, scalable health care delivery systems
  • Provide disaster health care that is based on the best available science, evaluation and quality improvement
  • Promote interprofessional communications during disaster
  • Demonstrate situational awareness of self, team and community safety
  • Apply team dynamics via specific roles that assure safe, timely, efficient, effective and equitable delivery of disaster health care
  • Responds effectively to disaster scenarios adapting knowledge from disaster medicine and public health core competencies

Schedule

Next on-site class: Please contact Sherry Farra, Ph.D., RN, CNE, for the date of the next scheduled course.

Prerequisite Class for the On-Site Class

Basic Disaster Life Support (BDLS) Course

The Basic Disaster Life Support™ (BDLS®) course is a 7.5-hour competency-based, awareness-level course that introduces concepts and principles to prepare health professionals for the management of injuries and illnesses caused by disasters and public health emergencies. The course builds upon, applies, and reinforces the information presented in the Core Disaster Life Support® (CDLS®) course. This includes application of core principles and concepts in emergency management and public health as introduced in the CDLS course through the PRE-DISASTER Paradigm™ and DISASTER Paradigm™. The primary focus of the BDLS course is incorporation of an “all-hazards” approach to mass casualty management and population-based care across a broad range of disasters. Measures to ensure and enhance health workforce readiness are emphasized throughout the course. This includes a consistent and scalable approach to workforce protection and casualty management, as well as, mass casualty triage and fatality management.

You can take the course anywhere it is offered. Find a training center. Please make certain that you print your certificate of completion because you will be required to load it into your NDHC course profile to exhibit that you have met the pre-requisite requirement. 

The BDLS course will be offered at Wright State University prior to the start of the on-site skill component. All course materials and the required book are included in the cost. (The book will be available as an ebook download when you've registered with NDLSF.)

Registration

Pre-registration required. No walk-ins accepted.

Date: March 21, 2022

Register

Contact Information

For additional information, please contact Please contact Sherry Farra, Ph.D., RN, CNE, or call 937-775-2618. 

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