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Applied Epidemiology for Public Health Workers

Intended Audience

  • Public Health Nurses
  • Sanitarians

Course Description

This course will provide an understanding of the epidemiologic methods, concepts and issues that are critical for the assessment, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data. Participants will be given the opportunity to work in small groups to apply these concepts to short exercises and case studies. Topics to be covered include surveillance, outbreak investigation, screening, and basic epidemiologic measures.

Detailed List of Topics:

  • Overview of Epidemiology
  • Surveillance/ Investigation Overview
  • Surveillance & Response in Depth
  • Control Measures
  • Epidemiologic concepts: Descriptive Epi & Rates
  • Foodborne Illnesses & Surveillance & Response Issues
  • Foodborne issues from a Sanitarian perspective
  • Measures of Association & Risk
  • Communication Issues

Objectives

After completing this course you should be able to:

  • Define Epidemiology.
  • Recognize and refer to basic epidemiological concepts, principles and terms.
  • Describe the system for reporting and responding to reportable conditions.
  • Describe the importance of case definitions.
  • Describe local HD roles and responsibilities in response to reportable conditions.
  • Apply the principles of public health surveillance and response.
  • Recognize an outbreak.
  • List and practice the ten steps of an outbreak investigation.
  • Apply steps of outbreak investigation to case study.
  • Develop and utilize simple methods to organize relevant data.
  • Describe basic control measures related to communicable disease
  • Describe legal authorities related to communicable disease control.
  • Practice and apply appropriate control measures to case study.
  • List and define the most common elements used to describe a communicable event.
  • Describe systems for monitoring & responding potential foodborne illnesses in the community.
  • Develop and administer simple survey tools during a foodborne event.
  • Review basic approach to summarizing a foodborne event using basic descriptive Epidemiology.
  • Describe sanitarian approach to a foodborne outbreak, including review of triggers for and steps of a basic inspection.
  • Utilize descriptive epidemiology to summarize the results of a foodborne outbreak.
  • Describe methods of determining risk association – including use production of 2x2 tables, measures of risk, etc.
  • Calculate and interpret foodborne outbreak measures of risk.
  • Describe HAN and other methods and issues of disseminating information during an event.

Public Health Competencies Addressed

This is a knowledge level course, i.e. it provides an intermediate level of mastery of the content. Individuals are able to apply and describe the skill.

The following competencies are addressed in this course:

Bioterrorism and Emergency Readiness Competencies for All Public Health Workers
Developed by Columbia University School of Nursing Center for Health Policy
Source: http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/nursing/chphsr/pdf/btcomps.pdf

7. IDENTIFY limits to his/her own knowledge, skills and authority and IDENTIFY key system resources for referring matters that exceed these limits.
8. RECOGNIZE unusual events that might indicate an emergency and DESCRIBE appropriate action.

Council on Linkages Core Public Health Competencies (domains):
Developed by The Council on Linkages between Academia and Public Health Practice
Source: www.trainingfinder.org/competencies/

DOMAIN #1: Analytic Assessment Skills
DOMAIN #6: Basic Public Health Sciences Skills

Prerequisite Knowledge

None

Format

This course is offered in a lecture format and uses case studies to provide exposure to situations typically encountered in practice. Participants are encouraged to submit issues from their own work experience that could be used in conjunction with the case studies.

Estimated Time to Complete

This course is designed as a residential training over two and a half days. However, the scope of the course can be modified to fit into a shorter time frame if desired.

Course Instructors

Victoria Holt, PhD, RN, MPH
Professor, Department of Epidemiology
University of Washington

Dr. Holt frequently recruits a local epidemiology specialist to be co-instructor of this course. This has been a successful format for integrating current local issues with key course concepts. Most recently, Dr. Holt co-taught this course with two epidemiologists from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Jim Murphy and Kammy Johnson, D.V.M., Ph.D (a CDC assignee to MT DPHHS).

Previous Offerings

June 2004, 2005. Montana Summer Public Health Institute, Bozeman, MT
June 2006. Montana Summer Public Health Institute, Great Falls, MT

Scheduling and Additional Information

For more information, or to schedule this course at your organization in the Northwest region (AK, ID, OR, MT, WA, WY), please e-mail NWCPHP or call (206) 685-1130.

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