Scenario:
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 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.
Step 1: Pick an area with hazards that are interesting to you (e.g., San Diego)
HVA:
To write and present a disaster management plan for your chosen local jurisdiction, it is necessary to know what hazards are present. A HVA is a way to determine top hazards for an area. Choose the area on which you want to do your project, and complete the HVA worksheet for your chosen jurisdiction.
Step 2: Identify the top threats to the jurisdiction based on results of your HVA and chose a high-ranking hazard on which you would like to focus (e.g., wildfires in San Diego)
Step 3: Complete the paper and presentation, following the rubric.
Paper:
Following the scenario above, write your paper as if you were creating a public health disaster management plan for your chosen jurisdiction, using the hazard you chose from the HVA and acknowledging the HVA process for your paper (e.g., write a plan for public health management of wildfires in San Diego).
Presentation:
Present your paper to the class, as if the class was an interview panel for your local health department.