Critical systems for public health management of floods, North Dakota.

Availability of emergency preparedness funding between 2002 and 2009 allowed the North Dakota Department of Health to build public health response capabilities. Five of the 15 public health preparedness capability areas identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2011 have been thoroughly tested by responses to flooding in North Dakota in 2009, 2010, and 2011; those capability areas are information sharing, emergency operations coordination, medical surge, material management and distribution, and volunteer management. Increasing response effectiveness has depended on planning, implementation of new information technology, changes to command and control procedures, containerized response materials, and rapid contract procedures.

A training plan for bedside computers.

As more hospitals implement bedside computer technology, staff development educators will be called on to develop complex training programs. This article describes a successful bedside computer training plan that includes use of a contract, pretraining activities, training methods, and training environment.