In many organizations, emergency preparedness functions are not a full-time or a primary job responsibility, and individuals may fill the preparedness role for multiple organizations within the same county (e.g., EMS and public health agencies) or for multiple counties.
In support of establishing viable capabilities in fulfilling National institutional pandemic preparedness functions and responsibilities, NCLE convened an International Forum in October 2007 with development partners, principally from the WHO-United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (WHO-USCDC) Lao Collaboration, with the intent of developing a roadmap toward NIC designation.
Lack of knowledge, ambiguity regarding one's exact tasks, and questionable ability in performing one's role as risk communicator were all significantly associated with a higher perceived personal risk and a two- to ten-fold decrease in willingness to report to duty; these factors proved to be more influential even than the perceived level of family preparedness to function in one's absence.
Most important, the legislation required top FEMA officials to have emergency management experience, and it united preparedness and response functions so the same people could work with state and local officials to prepare and respond to catastrophes.
Although registered nurses are formally qualified to work at any level of health care provision, questions have been raised about their preparedness to adequately function in the community [ 4].
In 2008, CDC published an assessment tool to help countries determine the status of their influenza pandemic preparedness across twelve capabilities; functions, resources or activities identified as critical to pandemic preparedness and response [ 11].
The survey evaluated: (1) the emergency preparedness capabilities activated and functions performed in response to the emergency scenario, and (2) the major challenges to inter-organizational communications and information management.
Similarly, telephone support provided by nurse educators for family caregivers has been associated with small improvements in caregiver problem-solving skills, mental health, perception of preparedness, vitality, and social functioning [ 19, 34, 35].
Owing to the diversity characteristic of public health emergency and lack of special fund for preparedness, there exists overlapping function between health supervision agency and relevant agencies, resulting in the state that multiagencies executed law enforcement out of their own interests.
The PAHO function 11 on preparedness is not identifiable as a separate (i.e. important) function in either of the other two examples.
Further, there has been a concerted effort to integrate disaster and emergency preparedness into traditional public health functions and organizational structures.
