NEHAP TWG 6 (Contingency Planning, Preparedness and Response in Environmental Health Emergencies) initiates the idea of having voluntary competency module for front liners, volunteers and low rank civil defense Malaysia.  Based on past experiences in year 2014, competent disaster front liners are needed.  Currently, there is no on-job training to produce such competent front liners before deploying them to disaster area.

This module were developed by a working group formed under TWG6 led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rosnah Ismail, a Medical Lecturer (Occupational Health) from National University of Malaysia (UKM).

NEHAP Malaysia are delighted to introduce you to the new online course entitled First Responders In Disaster Management a.k.a One Health Disaster First Responder Module.

The course meant for first responder who respond to any incident site that may have potential to be escalated to a complex disaster scenario.  So this course provides a general introduction to the four phases of disaster management i.e. mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery phase.  Often, human-animal-environment interaction is forgotten while responding to an incident site. Hence, One Health concept is incorporated to protect first responder during response and recovery phases.  This course adds two significant modules to cover psychological first aid and communication to refresh the cognitive skills for the first responder.

By the end of this course, participants should be able to understand the framework of the disaster management in Malaysia with additional knowledge to protect them against potential zoonotic infection at the incident site.  The participants are expected to have background knowledge, cognitive skills and experiential learning pertaining to the roles of first responder in all four phases of disaster management i.e. mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.  These skills are needed when first responder participating in a simulation exercise or responding to a real incident.

This is a promising course for you. Let’s surf the course and enjoy!

Any suggestions are welcome. Please do contact: Dr. Rosnah Ismail (drrose@ppukm.ukm.edu.my)