I apologize for clogging up the board, but I wanted to reframe my question. I am very interested in learning some of the best ways to prepare for short, intense disaster relief, particularly internationally. It seems that there are a few options
1) MPH during med school to begin the training process
2) MPH after residency to combine clinical and public health skills
3) A fellowship (international or disaster) to gain the skills and resources necessary.
4) Join an organization that does this type of work
So what is the best way to become the most skilled and prepared clinician in disaster situations. Additionally, which one would offer the best resources for starting an organization?
Thanks!
That depends what you mean by 'preparing you for disaster relief'.
If you are interested in participating in relief operations after an international disaster occurred, you need to be active with organizations that provide such relief (MSF, for example). You don't need an MPH or a fellowship to do that.
If you have an academic interest in Disaster Preparedness, and want to do this (in addition to your clinical work) pretty much all year round, you would be well served by either getting an MPH or a fellowship in international EM or disaster preparedness (some of which come with an MPH or similar degree). Although routes 1-3 have their own pros and cons, whenever a thread on this topic comes up it seem that external factors play more of a role (needing to let a SO to catch up for couples match, or needing an extra boost to CV for residency, etc) than which route is actually better.
Keep in mind though that most Disaster Preparedness is not dashing off to Haiti/Japan/Timbuktu to save orphans but things like:
1)
reviewing disaster plans for your hospital/uni (these are long and boring).
2)
running drills and writing reports about it (these are sometimes interesting).
3)
sitting on lots of different boards for the hospital, university, city and state organizations, OEM, etc (these are almost always mind numbingly boring).
4)
planning for disasters locally. What happens if there is a blackout? What happens if there is an exposure to a dangerous chemical/biological agent? What happens if there is a flu epidemic and 500 people come to the ER at the same time (this is called surge capacity and is actually a very interesting topic). All this needs to be described in lots of detail in writing and periodically reviewed.
5)
responding to disasters, most of which you would not think of as a disaster because it's not particularly glorious and nobody dies. Example: big blizzard, and 30% of staff don't make it to work. This is occasionally fun though. Afterwards you have to write a LONG after-action report though, which is not so fun.
6)
running CME workshops for nurses, physicians, other staff.
7)
going to conferences to meet with other Disaster Preparedness people and lament about the lack of funding in your field.
Only a tiny portion of your time, if any, will be spent in the field. Still, it's a great field and an interesting academic niche if you are the right mindset for it. Just don't imagine your future career as Tommy Lee Jones in 'Volcano' and it's all good.
