Workforce Capacity and Capability
ASPR’s Health Care Readiness Programs Portfolio consists of core programs and activities that serve as building blocks for a comprehensive, national system for health care preparedness and response. As part of ASPR’s Health Care Readiness Programs Portfolio, Workforce Capacity and Capability building activities aim to enhance health care workforce preparedness and response capacity and capability through knowledge transfer, trainings, and sharing of leading practices. ASPR supports the development and management of workforce capacity courses and educational opportunities designed to improve health care readiness and establish guidance for workforce capacity programs.
Health Care Readiness and Response Courses
Health Care Coalition Response Leadership Course (HCRL)
Through a partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, AL, ASPR provides instruction and practical experience in proven procedures for preparing and responding as a Health Care Coalition (HCC) leadership team to community and regional disasters.
The three-day course offers insights and lessons learned related to establishing an effective HCC framework, conducting HCC planning, and strengthening jurisdictional disaster readiness and preparedness.
From September 2016 through March 2020, 72 HCCs from 30 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and six of the U.S. Pacific territories and freely associated states participated in the HCRL course. The HCRL course is currently on hold due to COVID-19.
Learn more about HCRL Course >>
Medical Response to Overwhelming No Notice Mass Trauma Course
ASPR, FEMA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Office of Emergency Medical Services (EMS), the American Burn Association, the American College of Emergency Physicians, and the American College of Surgeons are developing a “Medical Response to Overwhelming No Notice Mass Trauma” course to improve clinical response to overwhelming no-notice mass trauma events.
The intended audience for this course includes clinical care providers (e.g., trauma surgeons, emergency physicians, EMS professionals), and the curriculum integrates lessons learned from past large-scale events, such as the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. This two-day course focuses on exercise-based problem solving and discussion of key decision points as well as lessons observed during the medical response exercise.
The in-person pilot trainings planned for Spring 2020 were postponed due to COVID-19, but the public-private partnership that led the development of the curriculum plans to continue piloting this course as soon as possible at Noble Hospital in FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, AL.
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