Professional blog

Scenario: San Diego County Fire Disaster Management Plan

You are applying for an internship within the Emergency Preparedness and Response department at your local county health department. The application process requires that you submit a public health disaster management plan for a natural or man-made event in the community.

The plan should adapt best practices and lessons learned from a recent event in a similar community to prepare your local community. The most comprehensive, evidence-based, and realistic plans will be selected for in-person interviews which will include a presentation of the proposal. The plans should also be mindful of an all-hazards approach. Earning an internship will provide you with opportunities to network with experts that can help improve your skills and provide you a competitive advantage when applying for employment and/or graduate school.

Please limit your paper to 10-12 pages.

(CLO 1-7; PLO 1-7, ILO 1-7)

• COH 440 Signature Assignment Sample Paper  – Word Document (39 KB)
• COH Signature Paper Rubric

Pointers

• Writing the paper: Be concise, think of an experience you have with an emergency and what you have or wish you had so that you feel safe or prepared:
  • Go back to your HVA and question.
    • If I want to write about an active shooter response while going to NU, is there an SOP or training provided for instructors and staff to notify security/law enforcement and secure students in case of an event?
  • Use the rubric guide as an outline for writing the paper. Using the example you can ask:
    • Are there any incidents in the past where something similar happened at Nu or another university?
    • What are the gaps?
    • What was the impact of the event on the school and community?
    • Who was involved?
    • Who collaborated?
    • What were the challenges in responding to or managing the event?
    • What was the plan in case it happened and was it followed?
    • After the event, what was the outcome?
    • What can you do to improve or answer your initial question?
    • Who, what, and how will you develop a plan, execute, and evaluate so that what happened in the past is prevented from affecting your organization and community?
    • Who are your community resources? Closest law enforcement, fire department, NGO, CERT response, FEMA, Red Cross, and hospital that you can work with for your plan?
    • How will you measure your goals and objectives? (examples of action items are)
      • I want to train 70% or 70 out of 100 staff within 3 months
      • In 6 months, I will have trained 150 out of 200 staff
      • I will develop an online training video for the instructors on the basics of responding to an active shooter event that will be a mandatory assignment completed every year
      • I will conduct a drill every 3 months for an active shooter in collaboration with the Kearny Mesa Sheriff and Fire Department. Kaiser Kearny Mesa and Red Cross will participate in managing triage patients within the NU parking lot.
      • Develop a pre and post-survey measuring perception of knowledge and readiness.
      • Provide an action item report to all stakeholders of what went well and opportunities for improvement 1 week after the drill.