Risk communication considerations to facilitate the screening of mass populations for potential contamination with radioactive material

Surge capacity volunteer perspectives on a field training exercise specifically designed to emphasize likely roles during a disaster response

Experience gained from involvement in a number of emergency response activities since September 2001 in Texas indicated that the likely roles of statewide medical reserve corps units typically included aspects such as crowd control, registration and tracking, and information management. The need for training specifically focused on these likely roles became apparent. A novel field training exercise was developed that specifically focused on these likely roles. The exercise centered on a scenario involving the surreptitious placement of radioactivity in high traffic areas across the country, resulting in the contamination of large numbers of individuals. Because the source of the contamination was unknown, surge capacity contamination screening and data collection centers became necessary. Feedback collected from drill participants was measured to be overwhelmingly positive, with the vast majority of participants indicating a marked improvement in their understanding of their likely roles in a disaster of this type. The approach used in this training effort may be of use to other disaster surge capacity organizations as part of their strategic planning efforts as a means of ensuring that individuals involved in response activities possess familiarity with their likely roles during a wide scale public health disaster event.