Examining and Enhancing Public Health Workers' Sense of Efficacy Toward Hurricane

描述(由申请人提供)： 地方公共卫生机构是公共卫生应急准备系统的核心，其工作人员在所有灾害阶段--包括灾后恢复--都发挥着关键作用。尽管如此，LPHA工作人员对灾难恢复挑战的有效性的看法仍然知之甚少。值得注意的是，大量研究发现，在面对挑战时，感知效率决定了个人和集体的积极适应性行为。因此，必须了解LPHA工作人员对灾难恢复公共卫生挑战的有效性认知，找出他们在恢复阶段感知的有效性中的相关缺陷，并开发基于证据的课程方法来解决这些缺陷。我们提议的混合方法研究将在飓风桑迪恢复的背景下，从受这场灾难影响的司法管辖区的LPHA工作人员的关键角度来实现这些目标。与这一目标一致，我们的目标是：1)通过调查在恢复活动中沟通和接收所需信息的潜在障碍，描述LPHA工作人员在飓风桑迪恢复工作中面临的业务挑战的性质；恢复监测工作的障碍，以及这些障碍如何因监测活动的类型而不同；以及在整个公共卫生应急准备系统中，LPHA与其他组织之间有效整合和协调恢复工作的障碍；2)应用基于威胁和功效的模型来评估LPHA工作人员对具体目标1中确定的飓风桑迪恢复操作挑战的看法和相关信念，包括：根据国家灾难恢复框架，LPHA工作人员对飓风桑迪恢复活动的感知效能水平是否以及如何随恢复阶段的不同而不同；司法和机构一级的政策、法律当局以及个人和家庭准备在改变LPHA工作人员对飓风桑迪恢复工作的威胁和有效性的看法方面所起的作用；以及LPHA工作人员是否认为他们个人参与飓风桑迪恢复活动对其机构在灾难恢复工作中的成功有意义；以及3)评估一种新的课程干预措施的有效性，以提高LPHA工作人员对已确定的恢复挑战的有效性感知，并增强他们对持续准备工作的动机。该项目对公共卫生应急准备系统的价值既实用又重大，因为它将提供亟需的数据驱动的见解和新的循证方法，以优化飓风桑迪过后的LPHA恢复和持续的公共卫生准备。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Local public health agencies (LPHAs) are at the heart of the public health emergency preparedness system, and their workers play critical roles in all disaster phases - including recovery. Despite this, LPHA workers' perceptions of efficacy toward disaster recovery challenges remain poorly understood. Of note, a substantial body of research has found perceived efficacy to be determinative of positively adaptive individual and collective behaviors in the face of challenges. It is therefore essential to understand LPHA workers' efficacy perceptions toward disaster recovery public health challenges, to identify relevant deficits in their perceived recovery-phase efficacy, and to develop evidence-based curricular approaches to address these deficits. Our proposed mixed-methods study will accomplish these goals in the context of Hurricane Sandy recovery, from the critical perspectives of LPHA workers whose jurisdictions were impacted by this disaster. Consonant with this goal, our aims are to: 1) Characterize the nature of operational challenges that LPHA workers face in Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts by investigating potential barriers to communicating and receiving needed information in recovery activities; impediments to recovery surveillance efforts, and how these impediments differ by types of surveillance activities; and hurdles to effective integration and coordination of recovery efforts between LPHAs and other organizations across the public health emergency preparedness system; 2) Apply a threat- and efficacy-based model to assess LPHA workers' perceptions and related beliefs toward Hurricane Sandy recovery operational challenges identified in Specific Aim 1, including: whether and how LPHA workers' perceived levels of efficacy toward Hurricane Sandy recovery activities differ by recovery phases per the National Disaster Recovery Framework; the roles, if any, that jurisdictional- and agency-level policies, legal authorities, and personal and household preparedness play in modifying LPHA workers' perceptions of threat and efficacy toward Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts; and whether LPHA workers perceive that their individual participation in Hurricane Sandy recovery activities meaningfully impacts their agencies' success in disaster recovery efforts; and 3) Gauge the effectiveness of a novel curricular intervention for boosting LPHA workers' efficacy perceptions toward the identified recovery challenges and for enhancing their motivation toward ongoing preparedness efforts. The value of this project to the public health emergency preparedness system is both practical and substantial, as it will provide much- needed data-driven insights and novel evidence-based approaches to optimize LPHA recovery and ongoing public health preparedness in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.