Volume 99 - Summer 2008	Download

CEO's Corner All Hazard Preparation and Execution Competencies: A Curricular Necessity? by Dianne M. Cearlock, PhD Chief Executive Officer

Events including those of September 11, 2001, Hurricane Katrina, and anthrax sent through the mail to the nation's capital have focused much energy on hazard (disaster) preparedness. The range of events that may come under the umbrella of hazards is almost numbing. These include natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, heat waves, tornadoes, wildfires and others as well as man-made hazards involving chemicals, explosives, radiation, and infectious biological agents. The clinical laboratory and its professionals serve as responders in some of these events whether through the identification of microbial hazards, preparing blood units for victims with injuries, and other examples. One can question, however, if NAACLS as an accrediting agency and the programs it accredits and approves do enough to foster the education of clinical laboratory sciences students to prepare for potential hazards and execute an all-hazard plan when an emergency occurs. A curricular requirement for all-hazard preparedness and execution education does not appear in NAACLS Standards and without this there is no way to ascertain if programs prepare students for these competencies.

A recent publication makes the point that even when institutions have developed disaster response competencies and curricula for health professionals, these have been limited primarily to specific health disciplines with little effort to integrate competencies across the range of responders and providers. ¹ The authors propose an educational framework for disaster medicine and public health preparedness based on consensus identification of learning domains and cross-cutting competencies with relevance to all health professionals. Further, they identify three distinct personnel categories to encompass all expected roles and levels of responsibilities: the informed worker/student who requires awareness and understanding but has limited responsibilities for application; the practitioner who must apply clinical skills and values in planning and execution; and the leader who has administrative decision- and policy-making responsibilities. Describing those three levels also implies different depth, breadth, and intensity of educational preparation in all-hazard preparation and response.

Should formal education in all-hazard preparedness and execution be included in NAACLS Standards and provided by all accredited and approved programs? As President Caskey states in her article in this NAACLS News edition, "the CLS student paradigm must change to better equip future professionals to integrate differently into the healthcare team". The change in paradigm puts emphasis on the clinical laboratory professional demonstrating greater leadership and collegiality across the healthcare spectrum. If all-hazard preparedness and execution education needs to result in competencies that cross-cut the various healthcare occupations, students must be better prepared to communicate effectively and bring a broad perspective to decision-making and implementation of emergency plans. It has been suggested that virtually all practicing healthcare professionals will be called upon to respond to some kind of public hazard during the course of their careers. Is it not in the best interest of public safety and quality healthcare to prepare students to meet this challenge through structured learning activities?

Top of the News
			Newly Accredited and Approved Programs, April 08
			President's Report Change by Cheryl Caskey, MA, CLS, CLSplH(NCA) President, Board of Directors
			Qatar University Celebrates Accreditation of the Biomedical Sciences Program by Victor A. Skrinska, PhD Lead Scholar/Distinguished Professor Biomedical Sciences Program, Qatar University
Features
			CEO's Corner All Hazard Preparation and Execution Competencies: A Curricular Necessity? by Dianne M. Cearlock, PhD Chief Executive Officer
			Dr. NAACLS
			NAACLS New BOD Member Appointed Dean
			NAACLS Volunteer, Dr.Vicki S. Freeman, Receives 2008 Piper Professor Award
Other News
			AMA's Health Care Careers Directory Expands Information provided by the AMA for distribution purposes
			Board of Directors Update, April 08
			Fall 2008/Winter 2009 Site Visits

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