PBHE426 (Research Paper) -- outline already created!

Introduction

Bioterrorism refers to the deliberate release of the biological agents such as the bacteria, viruses, or toxins by terrorist groups with the intention of causing destructions to human being, crops, and animals (Fong, & Alibek, 2010). Terrorists’ primary goal when organizing such biological attacks is to inflict public panic and fear in that hope that their adversaries will accept to implement their demands. The potential threat posed by an outbreak of illness following a bioterror attack can even be more dangerous than the threat posed by the nuclear war and the climate change.

Thesis statement

The medical and public health professionals should play a fundamental role in the preparation and response to the health disasters resulting from bioterrorism.

Plan of Action

This section will analyze the current state of public health professionals’ preparedness towards any future occurrence of bioterrorism (Veenema, 2012). It will further investigate the consequences of inadequate the public health professional’s preparedness in the wake of a bioterrorism attack (Putra, & Petpichetchian, 2011). In additions, it will investigate potential benefits of investing on measures to prepare the professions for potential bioterrorism (Avery, & Zabriskie-Timmerman, 2009).

Justification of the plan of Action

This plan of action is very relevant because it is going to fill the gap left by other researchers when suggesting the role of public health professionals on bioterrorism. The other researchers have different weaknesses when declaring the contributions of these professionals on preparedness for terrorism attacks, but they still have a few strengths. This research is going to concentrate and improve their weaknesses thus very essential to the society as a whole and especially to the public health sector.

Desired Outcomes

The research is expected to show that most of the public health professionals have declined their roles ensuring preparedness for bioterrorism and some other health disasters, either due to lack of knowledge or ignorance (Veenema, 2012). It will also indicate that the lack of adequate preparedness among public health professionals has aggravated the negative impacts of the deadly threat that the world is facing as a result of diseases from bioterrorists (Putra, & Petpichetchian, 2011).

The research will further encourage the government to invest on measures that improve the preparedness of public health professionals (Avery, & Zabriskie-Timmerman, 2009). Some of those significant roles of preparedness to the public health professionals include the following; facilitating the responses planning in the communities to the health disaster, enhancing the emergency response and the readiness skills, and detecting the diseases. Moreover, the others roles are; investigating the outbreak of a disease, testing the laboratory specimen to identify the causes of the disease, providing the information of the health to the public and also providing the clinical guidance to the responders and the providers.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the research will demonstrate that medical and public health professional has a fundamental role in the preparation and responding to the health disasters. Some of the importance of this project is to create awareness to the public health professional on their roles concerning the preparation of the bioterrorism. Thus creating awareness will be of great help as the public health will change their attitude and ignorance toward their preparedness on the threat caused by the bioterrorism.

References

Avery, G. H., & Zabriskie-Timmerman, J. (2009). The impact of federal bioterrorism funding programs on local health department preparedness activities. Evaluation & the health professions, 32(2), 95-127.

Fong, I. W., & Alibek, K. (Eds.). (2010). Bioterrorism and infectious agents: a new dilemma for the 21st century. Springer Science & Business Media.

Putra, A., & Petpichetchian, W. (2011). Public Health Nurses’ Roles and Competencies in Disaster Management. Nurse Media Journal of Nursing, 1(1), 1-14.

Veenema, T. G. (2012). Disaster nursing and emergency preparedness: for chemical, biological, and radiological terrorism and other hazards, for chemical, biological, and radiological terrorism and other hazards. Springer Publishing Company.