Development of a training curriculum for public health preparedness

We describe the development of a 2-day training curriculum in emergency public health to improve the competency of public health personnel to prepare for, and respond to, both natural and human-caused disaster hazards. The training is conducted in a face-to-face setting and content is mapped to recognized emergency preparedness competencies for public health workers. The training materials are uniquely structured to the specific hazards, demographics, resources, and local emergency response agencies for each jurisdiction. This training program incorporates a series of challenging interactive scenarios that reinforce decision making in a public health emergency. Pretesting and posttesting are used to evaluate knowledge gained by participants. This interactive approach aligns with the principles of adult learning, and training evaluations indicate that this method is an effective integration of process and content.