Building a system for preparedness: the NYCEPCE NEST experience

The New York Consortium for Emergency Preparedness Continuing Education grew from clinician-oriented, Web-based continuing education developed with and primarily for clinicians associated with the New York Presbyterian Healthcare System. As the consortium expanded to reach all of New York State (and beyond, via the Web), courses originally developed at Columbia were transferred to a widely advertised Web site, and the content expanded. The National Education Strategy Team supplemental funds allowed New York Consortium for Emergency Preparedness Continuing Education to consider how to overcome one of the major challenges in emergency preparation, connectivity across all sectors, and levels of the public health community. We chose to use community health centers as paradigmatic of the challenge: the clinician needs emergency preparedness competencies, but if the site at which practice takes place has no plan, those skills will not be best used; if the practice site is not connected to the community-wide plan, capacity may be duplicated or unused. If clinician, practice and community all plan, train, and practice in a common framework, the community should be much more resilient in the face of emergencies of any dimension.