UNMC will continue to develop interdisciplinary bioterrorism-related curricula for its students and for health care students across the United States, with the renewal of a grant that it first received in 2003.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Bioterrorism Training and Curriculum Development Program (BTCDP) announced recently that it had awarded UNMC with a three-year, $600,000 grant to develop the curricula. The UNMC project was one of three from the original 13 projects to receive another round of funding.
Phyllis Muellenberg is the primary investigator for the grant. The director of the Medical Technology division in the UNMC School of Allied Health Professions, Muellenberg said that cooperation among all UNMC colleges, as well as excellent information technology support, has been key to UNMC’s success in the project, thus far.
“Every single college is using the curricula in some manner, and we’ve had wonderful cooperation from faculty in all of the health education disciplines,” Muellenberg said. “The goal of this project is to have all health profession graduates be better prepared to serve as effective members of an interdisciplinary team response to any public health emergency. For that to happen, we’ve needed the buy-in from all colleges, and we’ve had that.”
The interdisciplinary involvement, Muellenberg said, has practical reasoning.
“We want to prepare our graduates to be ready to work in a teamwork setting, if there is a bioterrorism event,” Muellenberg said. “By knowing what other people do, they can work more effectively to treat patients and to lessen the effects of the bioterrorism event.”
The development and evaluation of the modules has involved more than 100 faculty members. All of the curricula being developed are Web-based, with eight modules covering different areas of bioterrorism preparedness or public health emergencies. They involve topics ranging from response to a “dirty bomb” to challenges of an avian influenza pandemic.
The new funding will expand the current program. It will address application, problem solving and psychomotor skills development in workshops and simulation exercises. Computer software attached to life-like mannequins will allow students to treat “patients” during simulation exercises. The project also will support the participation of students in state sponsored disaster preparedness drills, and continued enhancement and use of the modules already developed.
The new project involves collaboration with Creighton University, College of Pharmacy and Health Professions and the University of Missouri at Columbia School of Health Professions; as well as continuing cooperation with all UNMC colleges and programs. These partnerships add additional emphasis on preparedness education for students in pharmacy, dentistry, EMS and other disciplines in allied health.
Muellenberg said UNMC also is working with the Nebraska Center for Bioterrorism Education to make all educational materials developed available to health care practitioners throughout the state and nation.