Have you ever thought about the impact that repeatedly experiencing destruction and human suffering has on the people who respond to disasters? Although every person responds to traumatic events differently, being exposed to the mental trauma of an intense experience like a disaster has been correlated to increasing levels of depression, anxiety, and PTSD. While it is one thing for people who purposefully signed up as disaster responders and presumably understand that risk, what about the effects on people who did not sign up and just happened to be in jobs where they are, by default, disaster responders. By this I am talking about professionals like medical techs, residents, and nurses—people who happen to be in positions that require them to experience the suffering of others. Should we be warning new residents or medical or nursing students of the emotional and physical dangers that their future jobs may hold if they are called upon to respond to an event like… a pandemic? Today, Dr. Tom Kirsch, an emergency medicine doctor, who recently retired as the Director of the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, will talk to us about some of the topics that he is most passionate about: moral injury and duty to respond. We will discuss what obligation medical professionals have to place themselves and their families at risk of harm, and what some of the effects of those experiences can be.

Join me as I talk with Dr. Joelle Simpson about the importance of developing disaster plans and responses that specifically target the needs of our country’s pediatric populations. Dr. Simpson is a pediatric emergency medicine physician with Children’s National Health System where she serves as the Division Chief of emergency medicine and the Medical Director of emergency preparedness.  She is also a nationally recognized expert on all topics related to disaster pediatrics and participates on high level panels to ensure that the needs of the pediatric population are represented in disaster all national planning and response efforts. Stick around and learn about why the peds need special consideration.

Resources:

• Emergency Medical Services for Children Program
• Pediatric Pandemic Network
• ASPR Pediatric Disaster Centers of Excellence

When I think about austere medicine, I tend to think about wilderness medicine, but it is not actually limited to the wilderness arena at all. Technically, the practice of austere medicine is just medicine in resource constrained environments and who goes into resources limited situations more than the military? Today we will discuss military and austere medicine, and in particular disaster planning in those environments with Dr. Laura Tilley.

Dr. Tilley recently separated from the Army as a Lt. Colonel and in her time in the military she served as a battalion surgeon in Khost, Afghanistan during operation enduring freedom. After separating from the Army she joined the faculty at George Washington University as an emergency medicine attending physician.

References:

• Health Professions Scholarship Program
• Uniformed Services University
• To Ma’am with Love: USU’s Graduating Class Celebrates a Memorable Teacher and Mentor
• Prolonged Casualty Care Clinical Practice Guidelines