Tabletop exercise in emergency management

Our public health curriculum will culminate in a ``tabletop'' (simulated) exercise in which the class will manage a public health emergency in a fictional midwestern city. This will require some advance preparation. Early in the year, you will choose teams that will play various roles: mayor's office, city health department, news media, fire department, medical examiner, etc. Throughout the year, these small teams will need to prepare to work the exercise at the final public health teaching day. As part of the preparation, everyone will need to complete two online tutorials about the Incident Command System. Members of certain teams will need to complete additional online tutorials, or short readings, related to their specific jobs. All links are available on Blackboard, and all readings are available in the course manual.

Foundations of Mission Control

To instill within ourselves these qualities essential for professional excellence:

Discipline: Being able to follow as well as lead, knowing that we must master ourselves before we can master our task.

Competence: There being no substitute for total preparation and complete dedication, for space will not tolerate the careless or indifferent.

Confidence: Believing in ourselves as well as others, knowing that we must master fear and hesitation before we can proceed.

Responsibility: Realizing that it cannot be shifted to others, for it belongs to each of us; we must answer for what we do, or fail to do.

Toughness: Taking a stand when we must; to try again, and again, even if it means following a more difficult path.

Teamwork: Respecting and utilizing the ability of others, realizing we work toward a common goal, for success depends on the efforts of all.

To always be aware that suddenly and unexpectedly we may find ourselves in a role where our performance has ultimate consequences.

To recognize that the greatest error is not to have tried and failed, but that in trying, we did not give it our best effort.

-Gene Kranz, in Failure is not an Option