About this project:
Participants are then divided into interdisciplinary teams
representing multiple emergency response (ER) teams. ER teams must apply
their skills and knowledge to assess a fictional area experiencing a
humanitarian crisis. They will be expected to develop a plan to address
the many problems of the region, including malnutrition, poor
infrastructure, insecurity and violations of human rights. ER teams will
experience living conditions that are common for professionals working
in these conditions.The exercise is developed and administered by professionals with extensive experience in humanitarian crisis management. The framework for the simulation is based on the Sphere standards for best practices in Humanitarian Aid with a special emphasis on the management of medical issues.
Who should attend:
- Physicians and other professionals who are engaged in, or considering a career in humanitarianism. Register here http://www.dom.umn.edu/global-
health/education-training/ courses/person/humanitarian- simulation - University of Minnesota graduate and professional students. Register through One Stop.
- Students can earn one credit through the Humphrey
School of Public Affairs course PA 5824 – Crisis Simulation or through
the School of Public Health course PubH 6290 International Humanitarian
Crisis Simulation
Participants will gain:
- Knowledge of fundamental principles, minimum standards and best practices in Humanitarian Aid
- Opportunities to apply their professional skills and knowledge in a realistic scenario
- Opportunities to interact with other professionals involved in humanitarian aid
Contact: umnsim@umn.edu
About the Humphrey School and School of Public Affairs courses:
This course offers introductory training in the
practice of and global policy issues surrounding international humanitarian
crises, a growing area of global concern and also a growing area of jobs for
HHH graduates. Student interest is potentially strong; many HHH students
focus on human rights, security studies or international development and career
entry in those fields not infrequently comes through early work experience in
humanitarian response situations. Thus
training in this area can be useful for career development and—as the work can
be difficult, dangerous, and/or demoralizing--participants learn through the
course whether such work/this field is something they might manage. As increasingly each crisis turns into a continuing
development scenario (refugee camps become cities, diseases cross boundaries
permanently, natural disasters alter landscapes), a course like this helps
students studying issues of development, urban/regional planning, environmental
sustainability, and global politics understand basic background to many existing
cases.
Students learn and
practice humanitarian crisis response skills reflecting international standards
through a multi-day, humanitarian dynamic crisis simulation. The course
includes training in international crisis response standards (SPHERE) and
population assessment, WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) for refugee camps,
nutrition, interactive shelter design and planning, the international
legal basis for humanitarian response, safety and security issues
(refugee and NGO worker relationships, camp structure and environment,
military/militia, situational awareness), psychosocial trauma awareness,
and field hospital scenarios. This 1-credit course includes a pre-simulation
class meeting, on-site sector skill training and field crisis
simulation (Friday-Sunday), a
post-simulation class meeting (circa one week of the simulation), and a final
reflection paper.
History of this project:
This simulation was originally offered as
part of Humphrey School of Public Affairs course PA 5821: Humanitarianism taught
by adjunct instructor Eric James of the American Refugee Center (2010-2011). In
2013 as the simulation grew into a larger event than could be reasonably added
on to a regular course, we separated the crisis simulation into its own free standing course,
offered together with faculty in the UMN Medical School Global Health Program. The course was offered in this form three
times (May 2013, September 2014 and 2015) and the next simulation is scheduled
for September 9-11 2016. Humphrey students
have been put into teams with global health and Mayo Clinic students (medical
students, residents and doctors pursuing Continuing Medical Education credit)
and students from other UMN colleges (Engineering, Design, Social Work,
Nursing, Public Health, MSST) to work on a simulated international humanitarian
crisis.
In 2015 there were five University of Minnesota courses for academic or continuing medical education credit
running simultaneously as part of this simulation: PubH 6290 International Humanitarian
Crisis Simulation, GEOG 8290 -
Crisis Mapping, JOUR 5991 Communicating International Crisis, and University of Minnesota Department of Medicine Global
Health 26.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits.™
Students in PA 5824 have been put into teams with students in other courses
throughout the simulation, and some pre- and post-simulation activities were
jointly taught.