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（LPHAs）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，大量的研究发现，感知效能是积极适应个人和集体面对挑战的行为的决定因素。因此，至关重要的是要了解LPHA工作人员对灾后恢复公共卫生挑战的有效性认识，以确定其感知的恢复阶段有效性的相关缺陷，并制定以证据为基础的课程方法来解决这些缺陷。我们提出的混合方法研究将在飓风桑迪恢复的背景下实现这些目标，从LPHA工作人员的司法管辖区受到这场灾难的影响的关键角度来看。与这一目标相一致，我们的目标是：1）通过调查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运营挑战的性质;恢复监视工作的障碍，以及这些障碍如何因监视活动类型而异;在公共卫生应急准备系统中，LPHA和其他组织之间有效整合和协调恢复工作的障碍; 2）应用基于威胁和效率的模型，评估LPHA工作人员对具体目标1中确定的飓风桑迪恢复运营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有效性水平是否以及如何因恢复阶段而异;司法和机构层面的政策、法律的权威，以及个人和家庭的准备工作在改变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发挥的作用; 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的影响;和3）衡量一种新的课程干预的有效性，以提高LPHA工作人员对已确定的恢复挑战的有效性认识，并提高他们对正在进行的准备工作的动机。该项目对公共卫生应急准备系统的价值既实用又重要，因为它将提供急需的数据驱动的见解和新颖的循证方法，以优化飓风桑迪后的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.