UNMC learned Friday that it has received a two-year, $650,000 federal grant to develop a bioterrorism-related curriculum, which will benefit all UNMC students and may be used by students nationally.
UNMC was one of 12 universities nationwide to receive the curriculum-development funding announced by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson. The grants were among the first awarded through the HHS Bioterrorism Training and Curriculum Development Program.
Phyllis Muellenberg, director of the UNMC Medical Technology Program and the director of the UNMC Bioterrorism/Public Health Curricular Enhancement project, said the project provides an opportunity for unique, collaborative efforts among UNMC faculty from the nine allied-health programs; the colleges of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; and the UNMC/UNO public health program.
“It is great news and an honor to be approved for funding to develop the bioterrorism/public health emergency curriculum materials,” Muellenberg said. “The School of Allied Health Professions faculty are looking forward to working with representatives of all the UNMC colleges and the public health graduate program to develop an excellent package of discipline-specific and multi-disciplinary educational materials.”
Officially, UNMC was awarded $363,777 on Friday. Muellenberg said the second year of the grant would bring the university’s total to $650,000. In all, HHS announced grants totaling $26.6 million for this year. About $22.3 million will be used for continuing education for health-care professionals, and $4.2 million will be used for curriculum development.
“Our health care professionals need to be prepared for the special demands that a bioterrorism attack could make on them and on our health care system,” Thompson said. “This new program is an important part of our broader efforts to prepare our public health system, develop effective medical countermeasures and stand ready to respond if bioterrorism should strike.”
With its funding, UNMC plans to develop eight modules – an overview and seven topic-specific course modules – that can be tailored to students in specific programs. The modules will address how health professionals can work together during a public health emergency, in addition to providing specific information about the topic being covered.
“We want to prepare our graduates to be ready to work in a teamwork setting, if there is a bioterrorism event,” Muellenberg said. “By knowing what other people do, they can work more effectively to treat patients and to lessen the effects of the bioterrorism event.”
The topics of the modules are:
- biological terrorism – bacteriological agents;
- chemical terrorism – biotoxins;
- nuclear terrorism – radiation exposure;
- multiple terrorism – explosion, burns, chemical and radiation contamination;
- biological terrorism – viral agents;
- chemical terrorism — e.g. sarin gas;
- multiple terrorist events – contamination of food and water.
Faculty representatives from all of UNMC’s colleges will meet soon to begin to develop the modules. Muellenberg said that by this spring, some of the modules will be ready to incorporate into the classroom. Four of them should be complete by June 2004.
“We have people who are experts in this technology. I’m really looking forward to working with them” Muellenberg said. “We also have a good group of faculty who are committed to this. We need to incorporate all of this into our curriculum, anyway. We’ll do a better job because of the support we’re getting through this grant.”