The Bureau of Preparedness at the Florida Department of Health is in charge of health-related emergency response across the state, in coordination with county health departments and other agencies and offices. In the event of a public health or other emergency with a public health component, including hurricanes and infrastructure breakdowns, personnel and resources may be deployed from any and all of these agencies to support recovery. The bureau needed to provide training on the basics of emergency management and response to personnel with a wide variety of knowledge and skills who would be called upon to perform tasks in an emergency that are outside the scope of their usual job functions.

CHALLENGE

The sponsor needed web-based training that would be available 24/7 to all audiences, especially those for whom emergency response tasks are not day-to-day functions, without requiring them to carve out special time to participate in training.

SOLUTION

CIMES developed web-based training on the basics of emergency management and response. The training covers all four phases of the Disaster Management Cycle—Preparedness, Response, Recovery, and Mitigation. Participants learn about each phase in detail and have the opportunity to assess their learning at the end of each module.

PRODUCTS

• ESF-8 Awareness Training: 3 web-based modules on the Disaster Management Cycle