MSc Occupational Hygiene

The course is designed to provide a theoretical grounding in Emergency Planning, Response & Resilience (EPRR) for health care professionals with a responsibility for emergency planning and resilience and an introduction to the subject for those with an interest.

The unit will enable students to study the evidence base underpinning major incident and emergency management, with case studies, in order to develop a critical view of resilience and capacity management. The course will provide students with an ability to critically review major incident planning and explore some of the specialist incident types that require a dedicated response. Students will review the UK legislative framework surrounding major incident planning and resilience as a basis to discuss regional, national and international responses to multiple casualty events. Students will also gain an understanding of the health effects of chemical, biological, radiation and climate related hazards.

This is an interactive online course. Students must work through the online course material. Students are encouraged to use the Blackboard discussion boards to ask questions and check their understanding of the course materials.

This unit aims for students to gain an understanding of the principles of emergency planning, response and resilience and their application in a range of situations.

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

• Demonstrate a working knowledge of legislation, policy & guidelines relating to EPRR in healthcare
• Understand the health effects of chemical, biological, radiation and climate related hazards.
• Demonstrate understanding of the command & control structures commonly applied in emergency response & recovery
• Describe the structures involved in multi-agency EPRR
• Critically review plans & responses to incidents
• Demonstrate understanding of the identification, assessment, planning & mitigation process for managing risk
• Work through EPRR scenarios in a team

• Introduction to EPRR and legislation and guidance
• Assessing risk
• Risk mitigation and planning
• Training and exercising
• Response
• Integrated emergency management/command and control
• Exploring the response, recovery phase and resilience
• Communication, warning and informing the public
• Debrief, report writing and lessons learned
• International frameworks relating to public health and EPRR

The unit will be delivered online in Blackboard. This will include course materials, digital book chapters, links to online journals, video material and websites. The course notes include relevant case studies and are supported by video lectures and webinars. This is an interactive online course. Students must work through the online course material. Students are encouraged to use the Blackboard discussion boards to ask questions and check their understanding of the course material. Students will work individually and in groups. In addition, the unit will utilise virtual scenarios to both teach and formatively assess understanding along with moderated discussion board activities. Familiarity with major incident planning is not a pre-requisite of the course but students will be required to draw on and share personal experiences and use their normal working environment as a basis for discussions.

Cabinet Office

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/emergency-response-and-recovery

For further information, please watch this video from our Course Unit Leader.

If you have any questions about the content of this unit, please contact the course unit leader, Anjana Sahu, via email on anjana.sahu@manchester.ac.uk. If you have any other queries, please contact the PGT programme team via email at shs.programmes@manchester.ac.uk.