Needs Assessment for Emergency Preparedness and Bioterrorism Training

During 2002 and 2003, NWCPHP, Group Health Community Foundation, and state health departments in our partner states (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming) collaborated to develop an instrument to help the states assess their workforce training needs and develop an emergency preparedness training plan, as required by CDC's Bioterrorism Planning Cooperative Agreement.

The Instrument

The Emergency Response and Bioterrorism Training Needs Assessment Instrument is based on the CDC/Columbia University Bioterrorism and Emergency Readiness Competencies, developed in 2003 by the Columbia University School of Nursing. Following review of the first draft of the instrument by members of the NWC-PHP Regional Network, content was added from the following instruments: Public Health Performance Assessment Instrument for Emergency Preparedness (the DOJ instrument); The National Public Health Performance Standards Project (NPHPSP) performance standards; and other instruments based on the Council of Linkages Core Competencies.

The instrument has two modules.

1. A core set of 38 emergency preparedness items
2. A set of job-specific items for each of the nine job categories identified in the CDC/Columbia competencies

Download the assessment instrument.

Reporting Results

The instrument has been used or adapted by our partners in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.

• A Training Assessment of the Public Health Workforce on Bioterrorism and Emergency Readiness Competencies.

  Results of a needs assessment that the Montana Department of Health and Human Services conducted, using the Northwest Center's survey instrument.

Thurston County Department of Public Health and Human Services also used it to support their Project Public Health Ready activities. Four additional Project Public Health Ready pilot sites across the US also used the Northwest Center's instrument. (Read more about Project Public Health Ready.)

The Northwest Center and Group Health Community Foundation developed an analysis and reporting template so that the results of the training needs assessments can be used to develop and implement emergency preparedness training plans.

Download the training plan template.

Download a slide presentation on "Assessing Emergency Preparedness and Bioterrorism Training Needs: Designing and Implementing a Region-Wide Assessment," as presented at APHA 2003.

Needs Assessment for Workforce Development

The Northwest Center helps public health departments in the Northwest develop assessment instruments and conduct assessments and surveys on regional workforce development and training needs.

Assessment Projects

• Montana Public Health Workforce Development Survey — Summary. The Northwest Center designed and conducted this online survey in October 2004, for the Montana Public Health Training Institute, a program of the Montana Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health and Safety Division.
  
• The NW Regional Public Health Workforce Development Assessment was completed in January 2002. This document represents the compilation of the state workforce public health assessments conducted by five of the six states in the Workforce Development Network (ID, MT, OR, WA, and WY). These assessments were reviewed and analyzed to develop a broad picture of public health workforce development issues, barriers, needs, and resources across the region. The meta assessment is available. Susan Yee's slide presentation from the January 2002 meeting is also online. This article from Northwest Public Health Spring 2002, Assessing Workforce Training Needs in the Northwest, by Susan Yee, summarizes the results of the assessment.
  
• Workforce Development Project: 2000 Training Needs Assessment Update — Washington State
  This final report provides a review and update of several training needs assessments undertaken between 1997 and 1999. The earlier assessments were analyzed within the specific context of the recently developed Public Health Performance Standards. This report supports development of the 2001 Public Health Improvement Plan, which has as a major priority the area of workforce development.
  
• A Profile and Training Needs Assessment of Community/Public Health Professionals in Washington State This report presents the findings of the first phase of a survey profiling community/public health professionals in Washington state and delineating their training needs. These findings indicate that although the distribution of community/public health professionals varies among organizational settings, the training needs within these organizations and among professional groups are similar. The report was published in January 1998.

Training Needs Assessment Tools

These general workforce assessment instruments, developed from 1998 through 2001 to assess the training needs of public health workers, may provide useful models for other states.

• Oregon State Local assessment tool [Word]
• Oregon State assessment tool [Word]
• Oregon State Tribal assessment tool [Word]
  
• Idaho assessment tool [Word]
  

• Montana assessment tool [ PDF | Word ]
  
• Washington State assessment tool [ PDF | Word ]
• Washington State Tribal assessment tool [Word]
  
• Wyoming assessment tool [ PDF | Word ]
• Thurston County assessment tool [Word]
  

Please notify NWCPHP if you use any of these tools, so we can share that information with our partners.