Public Health Disasters & Preparedness Ashford University Discussion

Public Health Disasters & Preparedness

Read through the emergency disasters below. Select one of these scenarios and then complete the following steps:

• Scenario No. 1: “Dragon/Volcano Emergency Response”
• Scenario No. 2: “Vaccine Gone Awry Emergency Response”
• Scenario No. 3: “Tornado Scenario”
• Scenario No. 4: “Tropical Cyclone and Flooding”
• Scenario No. 5: “Zombie Apocalypse”

Imagine you are the director of FEMA using NIMS when this disaster occurs.

• Develop a PSA (using either Screencast or video) that informs the population of what will be done to resolve the issue. Address these elements in your video:
  • Describe the nature of the situation.
  • Explain what FEMA and others are doing to mitigate the situation.
  • Explain what people need to do to stay safe and/or to get help in order to reduce panic.
• Your vocal tone should be one that is meant to reduce panic and provide a solid explanation of the above elements.
• Copy and paste the URL to your video or screencast within your discussion forum response. If you are unable to create a YouTube video for this discussion, you may use a screencast program. However, you do not need to develop a PowerPoint presentation. This discussion is meant to assess your communication abilities, therefore, the audio portion of the video and/or screencast is essential. If you elect to use the screencast option, you may simply use a picture of yourself reporting the above information in lieu of a PowerPoint.

Questions to think about while formulating your response to the public:

• What are the issues you will address first?
• Which organization is responsible for what? Where will you allocate your resources?
• What public health concerns are the results of each of these events?
• Which populations might be most at risk?
• What are some of the long-term health effects of these events?
• What other health concerns may arise from these events?
• What will you say to the people, who are desperately awaiting your direction?

Scenario Response Due by Day 7: Imagine that you are the recipient of the public announcement made by your classmates. In responding to at least two classmates who used a different scenario than you, explain how you would respond and react to your classmates’ public announcement. Do you believe your needs were covered in what the FEMA director stated? What would you do or say differently?

Imagine that you are standing on the bank of a river and injured people start floating down the river towards you. There is no end to the floating people…they just keep coming and coming. You are alone and you do not have cell service to phone for back up. What do you do? In your discussion post, discuss what type of assistance you would want to provide. Explain where you think it would be best to focus your energy assisting (ie. should you stay where you are and pull people out of the river, or should you go upstream to find out why injured people are ending up in the river?) Determine what proportion of assistance should go to aiding injured people versus preventing the cause of the injuries in the first place. Justify your reasoning for why you would allocate your resources that way. (There is no right or wrong answer to this; it is a matter of determining the priorities between treatment vs. prevention.)First Guided Response Due on Day 5: Compare your response to that of your classmate. Assess how your classmate’s response would relate to public health issues more broadly. Determine whether your classmate’s justification for allocating resources is appropriate when considering public health issues more broadly. Pose at least one follow-up question to your classmate’s discussion response. Please make sure your questions are open-ended and not one-word response questions to enhance critical thinking skills. Respond to at least two of your classmates.