1 in 6 health workers won't report in flu pandemic -- study by Ben-Gurion U. r...(c is a major concern given the inevitab...)

The study concludes that in the context of pandemic influenza planning, the EPPM provides a useful framework to inform nuanced understanding of baseline levels of and gaps in local public health workers' response willingness.

Within local health departments, "concerned and confident" employees are most likely to be willing to respond. This finding may allow public health agencies to design, implement and evaluate training programs focused on emergency response attitudes in health departments.

"Employee response is a critical component of preparedness planning, yet it is often overlooked," said Daniel Barnett, M.D., M.P.H., co-author of the study and assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Our study is an attempt to understand the underlying factors that determine an employee's willingness to respond in an emergency."

The researchers also offer some recommendations as any amount of additional assistance will make a difference in response to an influenza pandemic.

• First step is to better educate public health workers as to their designated roles during this emergency scenario, and then motivate them with an understanding of why this role makes a difference. If a specific designated role cannot be predetermined, a set of potential roles have to be defined and adequately introduced to all relevant workers, up to a point at which they will feel confident in their ability to perform their duty, and perceive it as important.aa

• Downplaying the threat of the scenario to calm the fears of the workers is not an advisable approach. A sense of threat is an important component in the workers' motivation to prepare for the event and to respond to it
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