Disaster Preparation and Response

Course overview

Disaster responders share a common goal: To maximize patient survival while ensuring their safety and those in their team. The pre-hospital setting (e.g., EMS personnel, firefighters, and law enforcement) plays a critical role in the initial response and coordination of medical services. In the hospital setting, the interdisciplinary team responds to a sudden patient surge. Communication, care coordination, and preservation of community lifelines are major lessons learned from previous disasters. This course features an overview of disaster management, its stages, and the appropriate triage of patients. Disaster preparedness of healthcare personnel will help care for patient populations affected by them more effectively. The goal of this course is to prepare emergency medical service professionals, nursing, pharmacy professionals, and physicians in the acute care setting with an overview of disaster management response.