Pandemic Checklists for Schools of Nursing

1. Pandemic Checklists for Schools of Nursing Reka Gustafson MD, FRCPC Communicable Disease Control Vancouver Coastal Health

2. Pandemic Checklists • Framework for planning: • Get started • Avoid duplication • Plan to do, do not plan to plan • Coordinate with regional plans • Update and revise

3. Pandemic Checklists for Colleges and Universities • Planning and Coordination • Business Continuity • Infection Control Policies & Procedures • Communications Planning • Nursing students as a resource in a pandemic

4. Planning and Coordination • Identify a person or persons responsible • Identify resources • Measure progress • Coordinate with regional health authorities and their plans • Exercise and update

5. Business Continuity • Minimize illness among students and staff • Identify essential activities and ensure that these are backed up with alternative arrangements; and • Mitigate disruptions • Supplemental examinations • On-line teaching

6. Infection Control Procedures • Know and do what works: • Annual influenza immunization • Promote influenza immunization • School based immunization clinics • Hand-washing • Promote • Provide sufficient and accessible infection control supplies • Self-isolate when ill • Promote culture of staying home when sick • Establish ways of decreasing face-to-face contact

7. Communications • Emergency communications plan • Enhance communications and IT infrastructures • Test • Don’t overuse • Establish reliable sources of information • Communicate your plan

8. Nursing Students as a Resource • Individual Liberty • Protecting the Public from Harm • Proportionality • Privacy • Duty to Provide Care • Reciprocity • Trust • Solidarity • Stewardship

9. Nursing Students as a Resource • Identify and contact your local pandemic coordinator • How do students of health professions fit into local plans? • http://www.vch.ca/pandemic/docs/ch08_human_resources.pdf • Human Resources • Surge Capacity • Identify areas where nursing students can provide service • Triage Sites • Alternate Care Sites • Vaccination Clinics

10. Nursing School Pandemic Checklist • Provide estimates of the number of students available for pandemic response • Identify appropriate skills at each level of training, to establish scope of practice: • “The delegation of a medical act to persons other than physicians may be appropriate in certain restricted circumstances in the interests of good patient care and efficient use of health care resources.”

11. Nursing School Pandemic Checklist 5. Include training in the curriculum • Influenza • Influenza vaccination • Pandemic training package • http://www.vch.ca/pandemic/docs/pandemic_influenza_inservice.pdf • Immunization certification

12. Pandemic Checklist Tips • Start with what is already out there: • http://www.vch.ca/pandemic/docs/colleges_checklist.pdf • http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/pdf/colleges_universities.pdf • Consultation • Focused and limited • Refer to specific chapters/pages in a regional plan • Plan for what you can • Use action based language • Identify what you can do now • Exercise and revise • Share