Traditionally, healthcare workers have not been included in Chemical Biological, Radiological-Nuclear (CBRN) response policy and training. Terrorist and natural disasters such as the attack on the World Trade Center in the U.S. and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome SARS outbreak in Canada have highlighted the need to include this 'forgotten population' in CBRN emergency preparedness plans.
Using the 2003 SARS epidemic, this study will address front line health care worker response, preparedness and resilience for coping with disaster scenarios. This knowledge will be used to identify gaps and make recommendations for improved support mechanisms.
This four-year project is divided into four progressive components (modules), that each build on the knowledge and resources developed in earlier modules. The first module involves a substantive review of existing literature in three distinct areas: Support mechanisms for health care workers as first responders; impacts on first responder health care workers involved in SARS and other examples of undefined biological airborne agents; and mechanisms for adoption of communication and organizational best practices. A summary document incorporating each of these topics will be synthesized for the purpose of providing a resource for decision-makers.
The second module involves administration of a survey to public health care workers, specifically civilian and military nurses, and military physician assistants. The survey will focus on family and health impacts on first responders as a result of their potential or actual involvement as front-line workers responding to outbreaks of infectious, airborne biological agents.
The third module for this project focuses on identification, risk assessment, and analysis of hospital employee support mechanisms during an infectious disease outbreak. This component includes an evaluation of infectious disease outbreak emergency plans for three candidate hospitals, and focus group interviews with emergency team members, for the purpose of identifying gaps in support mechanisms for front line healthcare workers.
The results from the gap analysis for the hospital emergency plans and focus group interviews will be combined with the results of the survey from module two and compiled into a report to outline a risk management framework for public health emergency preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks. An additional report will be prepared, examining personnel policy and work-family conflict from a gender perspective.
The final component of the project focuses on dissemination and knowledge transfer to policy audiences. The project team will host a policy workshop to provide discussion, interpretation, implications and recommendations from the results of the study, with proceedings of the workshop being compiled into a discussion paper. Recommendations regarding risk communication, that arise from the policy workshop, will be developed into a document designed to influence and shape public health policy in the event of an infectious disease outbreak (CBRN threat).
The multi-disciplinary team of researchers, governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGO) partners for this project includes representatives from the University of Ottawa, Health Canada, Department of National Defence, Canadian Women's Health Network, GPI Atlantic, Scarborough General Hospital, Victorian Order of Nurses (VON), Elizabeth Bruyere Research Institute, Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, University of Toronto, BC Centre of Excellence on Women's Health, and the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions.
Additional information about this project may be obtained from the Lead Scientific Investigator, Carol Amaratunga, PhD., Women's Health Research Unit, Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, (carol.amaratunga@uottawa.ca), or the project coordinator, Tracey O'Sullivan, PhD. (tosulliv@uottawa.ca).
