Remember Haiti? Next Time, Get Trained. Here’s How

When natural disasters strike, many orthopedics physicians, nurses and other caregivers jump at the chance to contribute their skills and expertise and turn chaos, destruction and heartbreak into recovery. But…after crises such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or the 2010 Haitian earthquake, first responders realized that many of generous orthopedic volunteers were woefully untrained in disaster relief healthcare.

To better prepare doctors for treating patients after natural disasters or during emergency events, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has created a training course for pediatricians and care givers about first response disaster relief called the Pediatrics in Disasters (PEDS) course.

On August 7-9, Joint Task Force (JTF)-Bravo’s Medical Element (MEDEL) taught the PEDS course. JTF-Bravo MEDEL is a company of 64 U.S. Army personnel who, over the past 12 months, have provided medical care to over 8, 000 people in Honduras. At Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras, they trained pediatricians from across the country about children’s healthcare with respect to disaster preparedness and emergency response. Nelson Penman, M.D., a pediatrician at Santa Rosa Copan Regional Hospital, was one of the doctors who took part in the program.

“Here in Honduras, physicians are mostly hospital trained for medicine. We are not trained for first response healthcare. I feel that this training is needed on our country, it should be mandatory for pediatricians—all doctors. We tend to minimize the role of first responders, ” Penman said. “The role of the first responder is important and has many facets to it.”

The PEDS training included lectures and hands-on training about topics such as planning and triage in disaster situations, treatment for pediatric trauma, toxic exposure, and incident control command procedures. The doctors also traveled to the JTF-Bravo fire department to gain experience with body drags and litter carrying when wearing HAZMAT suits. The final day of the course included scenario training where the pediatricians used the previous days’ training to save children in a car accident with hazardous gasses in the air.

“This training was completely different than what I am used to. I have never treated anyone as a first responder before, ” Penman said. “I am extremely grateful for JTF-Bravo MEDEL, and the Honduran Pediatric Association for coordinating this course. Because of the training, the group of pediatricians that attended have a different understanding of first response healthcare.”