Background: We propose to develop the Mountain West Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Center (MWPERLC), expanding our current Arizona Center for Public Health Preparedness to provide training in the intermountain west region. Our existing curriculum for state, county and tribal partners is web-based, with content and evaluation questions mapped to specific core competencies required by state and local public health professionals, and divided into discrete modules to allow for training tailored to each partner's needs. We have also provided training directly to tribes and developed a tribal community college collaboration to adapt and provide emergency preparedness training to tribal public health professionals. Objectives and Methods: We will expand our existing activities to include the following: 1) Core Competency-based Training: a) Adapt our needs assessment survey, already completed by Arizona counties and underway among Arizona tribes, to determine public health core competency-based training needs for the county health departments and tribal public health entities in our partner states (Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah). This will help determine the highest priority competencies for training, and allow our partners to choose specific training modules to best suit their needs;b) Revise our existing competency-based e-training to follow experiential life-long learning theory and cover additional competencies identified by the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and deliver this training to our regional partners, including state, county and tribal health departments, and nationally as requested by collaborating PERLCs. All training materials will be mapped to specific competencies and will be reviewed regularly to update the content based on changes in the CDC/ASPH competencies and performance testing of our trainees. We will use pre- and post-training case-based scenarios to determine the effectiveness of the e-learning courses, and will evaluate results of training exercises for our partners as well as provide supplementary training to address noted weaknesses;c) Work with tribes regionally and nationally to adapt our training materials using tribe-specific case studies and educational modalities such as use of the talking circle. During the first year of the program we will provide face-to-face training to tribes in Arizona, assistance to our partner states to conduct tribal training, and training to the Navajo Nation through Din? College. In collaboration with Montana State University (MSU), we will work with Little Big Horn College to adapt our training materials for local tribal public health workers. In years 2-5, working collaboratively with MSU, we will expand to serve additional Montana tribes through their tribal community colleges and tribes outside our region working collaboratively with other PERLCs. 2) Partner-Requested Education and Training: Partner-requested activities will build on the core competency-based training. These will include assistance with planning and evaluation of preparedness exercises, point of dispensing (POD) training, just-in-time training and assistance with strategic planning. Special priority will be given to those requests that address deficiencies identified by needs assessments and that align with our focus on tribal training. We will also continue multidisciplinary training, bringing public health professionals together with other emergency response partners. Whenever possible, these trainings will follow the educational model and employ the same evaluation tools used in the core competency-based training. 3) Program Core and Network Activities: We will work closely with the CDC, our partners and other PERLCs to share our expertise in competency-based training, tribal public health preparedness, program planning and evaluation and other focus areas requested by the CDC. Expected outcome: The MWPERLC will provide regional core competency-based training mapped to and testing CDC/ASPH preparedness competencies. It will develop and share with other PERLCs models for tribal training, both direct and through tribal community colleges.
