Evaluating basic training for prevention and response to biological incidents

Resumen

Biomedical scientists were critical of the appropriate response to the unprecedented 2014-15 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Some international health care workers became infected during the response, threatening other countries such as Spain and the United Kingdom (UK). In addition, recent water and foodborne outbreaks due to the Shiga-toxin-producing Escherichia coli affecting the EuropeanUnion (EU) have highlighted the relevance of teaching future biomedical scientists response skills in the case of biological incidents. The BSc Biomedical Science (BMS) degree programme at De Montfort University (DMU, UK) is accredited by the UK Institute of Biomedical Sciences. Nonetheless, time dedicated to studying these topics was very reduced, being limited to two 15 credit modulesfocusing on general/medical microbiology (1st and 3rd year modules). A group of academics at DMU with support from different EU academics and first responders have designed basic competences to train human health science students on how to respond to biological incidents, following the competences identified by the European Commission. Moreover, a series of important modifications in the 2016/17 academic course were undertaken to ensure that our graduates received comprehensive knowledge regarding infectious diseases following the subject-specific threshold standards describedby the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). The syllabus of the Basic Microbiology module was comprehensively revisited after expanding this module to 30 credits. Importantnew topics were introduced in this level 4 module related to viral infectious diseases, helminths and fungi. The final year BMS module Medical Microbiology has also been intensively modified to introduce lectures in relation to emerging diseases (e.g. Cyclospora, microsporidia) and specific novel training to respond to biological incidents following the experience from the field during theEbola outbreak. During this training period (research-led workshop), final year BMS students (n=121) tailored an intervention programme to respond to a viral haemorrhagic fever outbreak following anevidence-based public health methodology. Validated feedback questionnaires to assess this training revealed the following results: 77.4% of students enjoyed the research-led workshop (45.2% agree;32.3% strongly agree), only 3.2% reported they did not enjoy it. Most of them (73.3% agree; 26.7% neither agree/disagree; 0% disagree) would recommend the incorporation of similar training withinthe programme. 87.1% indicated that they received appropriate knowledge to respond to biological incidents. Up to 90% recorded feeling confident enough to establish some public health interventionsin the aftermath of an outbreak. Limitations highlighted by students are related to the short time they had to tailor the response and the large amount of articles provided to inform their decisions. Despitethe need to evaluate final module level feedback in both modules, students highlighted high levels of engagement in both modules through interim module level feedback using the virtual learningenvironment (Blackboard). Thus, first year students enrolled in Basic Microbiology (n=196) have shown a significant increase of satisfaction from 20% in the 2015/16 academic year to 64% in thecurrent academic session. On the basis of our experience this far, the training created could facilitate the acquisition of basic competences to respond to biological events to protect the public.