Student outbreak response teams: lessons learned from a decade of collaboration

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Workforce Development

Background:

• Colleges of Public Health can establish student response teams to support local health departments.
• These teams offer practical field experience for students and vital assistance for public health agencies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the structure and function of a student response team.
• To highlight the benefits for both students and health departments.
• To share lessons learned from university-health department collaborations.

Main Methods:

• The paper details the interaction between a student response team and health departments.
• It includes specific examples of student roles and activities.
• Lessons learned from team leaders and health departments are incorporated.

Main Results:

• Since 2005, over 200 students contributed 1800+ hours to 62 disease outbreak investigations in Arizona.
• Students also provided 2500+ hours assisting with routine enteric investigations (Campylobacter, Salmonella).
• Effective communication, preplanning, and collaboration enhanced student learning and health department capacity.

Conclusions:

• Student response teams provide field training for students.
• They create trained surge capacity for health departments.
• These teams foster collaboration between academic institutions and public health agencies, leading to internships and job placements.