The ExploreSurge Trail Guide and Hiking Workshop: discipline-specific education for public health nurses.

Generic preparedness education and training for the public health workforce has increased in availability over the past 5 years. Registered Nurses also have more opportunities available for participation in emergency and disaster preparedness curricula. Discipline- and specialty-specific training and education for public health nurses (PHNs) incorporating their population-based practice, however, remains a largely unexplored area that is not accessible except for sporadic local venues.

Public health nursing competencies for public health surge events.

Objective: To develop consensus regarding public health nursing competencies in the event of a public health surge event related to disaster.

Design And Methods: Using a 3-round Delphi approach, public health nurses (PHNs) and directors of nursing from local health departments, state nursing leaders, and national nursing preparedness experts reviewed and commented on 49 draft competencies derived from existing documents.

Results: The final 25 competencies were categorized into Preparedness (n=9), Response (n=8), and Recovery (n=7).