On-line bioterrorism course available

By MARK SCHNEIDER
Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center

LEXINGTON — The Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center and The Kentucky Department of Public Health have combined efforts to produce an on line course entitled “EMS Response to Terrorism – Awareness Level Training for Bioterrorism” This program was funded through a Homeland Security grant received by the Cabinet for Health Services.

The course is designed to provide first responders a basic understanding of how to respond to a bioterrorism incident including information on:

• The types of agents that might be encountered;

•  Specific properties and characteristics of those agents;

•  Assessment and treatment of contaminated casualties;

•  Potential targets; and

•  Personal protective equipment when responding to such an incident.

Charles M. O’Neal, Deputy Executive Director of the Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services stated, “We are excited about the release of this course and its on-line availability to EMS personnel and other first responders across the Commonwealth. We feel that it will be an excellent tool to help educate and prepare health care and emergency response personnel to respond to incidents involving or potentially involving Weapons of Mass Destruction.”

The course has been given a total of 4 hours of continuing education credit by the Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services. The credits are broken down as one (1) hour for Disaster Management; one (1) hour for Patient Assessment; and two (2) hours for medical emergencies. Upon successful completion of the course, a course certificate can be printed directly from your computer to validate completion and to maintain in your files.

The course is designed to allow participants to work at their own pace and to easily navigate to reinforce the learning process. The completion of a brief multiple-choice exam is required at the end of each session to allow the participant to proceed to the next level. If a minimum score is not achieved, the participant is directed to refresh themselves on the material covered and to then once again take the multiple-choice exam. A participant need not complete the course at a single sitting. They may re-enter the program at any time by re-entering their student data from the same computer from which they originally registered.

This program is now available for the public.  The course can be located at the following web address: http://www.kiprc.uky.edu/trap. Other questions regarding the program can be directed by email to: mark1@email.uky.edu.

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