Johns Hopkins Medicine has released four web-based training modules for emergency department personnel who treat patients with Ebola and other infectious diseases.
The learning series, titled "Ebola Preparedness: Emergency Department Guidelines," prepares health care workers to safely and efficiently identify, triage, and briefly manage the care of patients who might have Ebola. It also highlights important planning processes, provider-patient communication techniques, and cross-discipline teamwork principles that can be used to successfully prepare for emerging infectious diseases.
The videos are now available on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's YouTube channel.
"In the last several years, our world has witnessed outbreaks of coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome, Middle East respiratory syndrome and novel influenza viruses, such as H1N1, and, most recently, Ebola," says Lisa Maragakis, director of hospital epidemiology and infection control at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. "These modules provide tools and resources that emergency department staff can reference when preparing to care for patients with any highly infectious disease."
The Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality led the development of the online learning modules using federal funds awarded by CDC. The multidisciplinary team included experts in emergency medicine, infectious disease, nursing, human factors and systems engineering, infection prevention and control, content development, and visual design from organizations including Johns Hopkins Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Emergency Nurses Association, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, and the Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies at Miami University, located in Ohio.
"The product we produced for CDC will help prepare health care facilities across the nation to better care for patients during disease outbreaks and epidemics," says Peter Pronovost, senior vice president for patient safety and quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine and director of the Armstrong Institute. "As clinicians, we have a responsibility to provide patient-centered, respectful care in the safest manner possible, no matter the circumstances."
The training package consists of short, step-by-step video clips that supplement CDC's written guidance on how to identify, triage, and briefly care for a patient who might have Ebola. The modules feature a series of vignettes showcasing CDC's recommended three-step strategy—identify, isolate, and inform—for managing possible Ebola cases. The four videos are titled:
- Considerations for Preparedness (16:50)
- Screening Patients for Ebola Risk Factors and Symptoms (13:40)
- Isolation of a Patient with Ebola Risk Factors and Symptoms (6:08)
- Evaluate and Briefly Manage Patients: Ebola Assessment Hospitals (14:19)
"With approximately 130 million Americans visiting emergency departments each year, it was critically important that we develop an interactive training program to educate clinical staff on CDC's recommendations related to the identification, isolation, and approaches to care for patients with risk factors or symptoms of Ebola," says Susan Peterson, an emergency medicine specialist with the Armstrong Institute and assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
This is the second course produced by the Armstrong Institute for CDC. The first training tool, "Ebola Preparedness: PPE Guidelines," illustrates CDC's guidelines for the proper use of personal protective equipment. The complete series is available on CDC's website.
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Tagged epidemiology, patient safety, infectious disease, ebola
