Exercises - PH 465: Public Health Emergency Surveillance

In addition to a variety of learning activities, there are 3 instructor-evaluated activities associated with PH 465: (1) complete the individual exercise; (2) participate in a multi-learner conferencing exercise; and (3) complete and submit the assessment quiz. Each of these is explained below.

Learning Activities (Note: these ARE NOT to be submitted!)

A series of individual learning exercises for this module are provided below. Completing these exercises will familiarize you with the knowledge, skills and attitudes that relate to the competency expectation for this module that is described above. Note that learners are not required to submit written response for these learning exercises. Completing these exercises, however, will prepare you for components of this module that are assessed and scored.

1. The content for PH 465 is provided in:
   • Disaster-Related Surveillance and Emergency Information Systems (Chapter 4, pp 49-58) in Public Health Management of Disasters. LY Landesman. Washington DC; APHA; 2001
   • Hazard Assessment, Vulnerability analysis, Risk Assessment, and Rapid Health Assessment ( Chapter 5, pp 57-72 ) in Public Health Management of Disasters. LY Landesman. Washington DC; APHA; 2001
2. Describe how the process of risk assessment is used in the mitigation and planning phases of public health emergencies and disasters.
3. Outline the goals and objectives of a rapid health assessment and describe the key sources of data and the methods of data collection for a rapid health assessment.
4. Describe the system for disseminating notifiable disease information and reporting requirements and procedures to health-car providers on a periodic basis. What role does this system play in assessment and surveillance for public health emergencies? What public health and health system resources are necessary in a community to assure proper assessment and surveillance for public health emergencies?
5. List at least three reasons for conducting epidemiologic studies for public health emergencies and disasters and describe the limitations of data collection during an emergency or disaster event.
6. What is public health surveillance and how is it useful for public health emergencies. Delineate three different types of public health surveillance systems based on the focus of the information collected.
7. Identify the major steps involved in establishing a public health surveillance system.

Evaluated Activities (Note: these ARE to be submitted!)

(1) Individual Exercise

Each learner will submit a brief response to the following exercise. Produce your response (less than 500 words) on a separate document to be uploaded at the "Submit Assignments" link. Please use "PH 465 Individual Exercises" as the title of your submission.

Review the case study, Suspected Bioterrorism: An E.Coli Outbreak. Were the surveillance activities of the state and local health agencies in this case study able to deal with the public health aspects of the situation? Were the surveillance and assessment activities of the state and local health agencies able to deal with the terrorism aspects of this situation? Why or why not?

(2) Conferencing Exercise

For this multi-learner conferencing exercise, produce your response on a separate document to be uploaded at the "Submit Assignments" link. Please use "PH 465 Conferencing Exercises" as the title of your submission.

After reviewing the responses of other learners, provide your own response to the following:

• First identify a public health emergency event or threat that differs from those selected by the other course participants who have already responded to this exercise.
• Next, for the public health emergency event or threat that you have selected, identify two or more epidemiologic assessment or surveillance activities that would be appropriate for each of the four temporal phases (i.e., preparedness, response, recovery, mitigation) for that event or threat.

(3) Assessment Quiz

Follow the LearningSpace link to the Assessment Quiz. You may be asked for your login ID and password to access the quiz through your Preparedness Center Personal Page. Complete the quiz and submit your responses. You make take the quiz several times.

Course Evaluation: All learners are asked to electronically complete a Course Evaluation Questionnaire; this is available to you as an electronic form and will be transmitted to a data base without your identity being known, and your instructor will have no way to link your identity to your comments. Before participating in these course evaluation activities, students should review the specific learning objectives established for this course (and others you may have taken as part of this series); these are available in the Syllabus. Evaluation of the course should focus on the extent to which these objectives were achieved.

PH 465 Exercises last revised July 06, 2006 (csong)