HCA 415 Discussions 

(1) Public Health Disasters and Preparedness [WLO: 1] [CLOs: 4, 5]

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read Chapter 7 in your textbook.

Read through the emergency disasters below and select one to address for this discussion:

· Scenario No. 1: “Dragon/Volcano Emergency Response”

· Scenario No. 2: “Vaccine Gone Awry Emergency Response”

· Scenario No. 3: “Hurricane Hunter”

· Scenario No. 4: “Snowmageddon”

· Scenario No. 5: “Zombie Apocalypse”

Imagine you are the director of FEMA using NIMS when this disaster occurs. Complete the following steps using the scenario you selected:

· Develop a video, using the instructions below, delivering a public announcement that informs the population of what will be done to resolve the issue. Your video should be at minimum 4 minutes in length. Address these elements in your video:

o Describe the nature of the situation.

o Explain what FEMA and others are doing to mitigate the situation.

o Explain what people need to do to stay safe or to get help in order to reduce panic.

· Use an appropriate vocal tone to reduce panic and provide a solid explanation of the above elements. Review the Writing Center’s Presentation Tips (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. to maximize your results. Preparing and delivering a clear message, like you would for a PowerPoint presentation, is also important in video presentations.

Instructions to record video:

In order to complete this discussion, you may use the native video tool in your classroom. Please review the Canvas Video Submission Instructions (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.in order to get started. This guide will familiarize you with the tool and review how to record your video to the classroom.

As an alternative, you may use an external platform called Screencast-O-Matic (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Please review the instructions provided by the Screencast-O-Matic Quick-Start Guide (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. in order to get started. This guide will familiarize you with the tool and review how to upload your video to the classroom. You do not need to develop a PowerPoint presentation. This discussion is meant to assess your communication abilities; therefore, the audio portion of the video or screencast is essential. If you elect to use the screencast option, you may simply use a picture of yourself reporting the above information in lieu of a PowerPoint. If you choose to use another video recording tool for your submission, please follow the guide instructions to upload an MP4 video file into your classroom using the same steps.

All submissions require an upload of the video to the classroom. Submission of a link to a video does not fulfill the submission requirements.

Think about the following questions while formulating your response to the public:

· What are the issues you will address first?

· Which organization is responsible for what? Where will you allocate your resources?

· What public health concerns are the results of each of these events?

· Which populations might be most at risk?

· What are some of the long-term health effects of these events?

· What other health concerns may arise from these events?

· What will you say to the people, who are desperately awaiting your direction?

(2) Allocating Public Health Resources [WLO: 2] [CLOs: 1, 5]

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read Chapter 8 of your textbook.

Imagine that you are standing on the bank of a river and injured people start floating down the river towards you. There is no end to the floating people…they just keep coming and coming. You are alone, and you do not have cell service to phone for back up. What do you do? In your discussion post, discuss what type of assistance you would want to provide by completing the following:

· Explain where you think it would be best to focus your energy assisting (e.g., should you stay where you are and pull people out of the river, or should you go upstream to find out why injured people are ending up in the river?).

· Determine what proportion of assistance should go to aiding injured people versus preventing the cause of the injuries in the first place.

· Justify your reasoning for why you would allocate your resources that way. (There is no right or wrong answer to this; it is a matter of determining the priorities between treatment versus prevention.).

Required Resources

Text

Bell, N. M. and Friis, R. H. (2019). Community and public health (2nd ed.). Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu

· Chapter 7: Public Health Disasters and Preparedness

· Chapter 8: Advocacy and Resource Allocation

· Review from Week 2: Chapter 5: Public Health Ethics, Law, and Policy (particularly the sections on policy)

Article

Wong, S. L., Green, L. A., Bazemore, A. W., & Miller, B. F. (2017). How to write a health policy brief. Families, Systems & Health: The Journal of Collaborative Family Healthcare, 35(1), 21-24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/fsh0000238

· The full-text version of this article is available through the EBSCOhost database in the Ashford University Library. This article provides an understanding of how to write a policy. It will be helpful for the Advocating for Public Health Policy assignment this week.

Web Page

American Public Health Association. (n.d.). Policy statements and advocacy (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Retrieved from http://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy

· This web page describes the key policies that the American Public Health Association advocates for and the strategies used to advocate for them and will assist you in your Advocating for Public Health Policy assignment this week.
Accessibility Statement (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Privacy Policy (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Supplemental Material

World Health Organization. (2006). Stop the global epidemic of chronic disease: A practical guide to successful advocacy (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. [Handbook]. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/chp/advocacy/chp.manual.EN-webfinal.pdf

· This resource provides a guide to what constitutes successful advocacy and assists you in working on the Advocating for Public Health Policy assignment for this week.
Accessibility Statement does not exist.
Privacy Policy (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.