Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T20:19:46.052Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Successful Strategies for Recruitment of Emergency Medical Volunteers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2013

Anne Rinchiuso Hasselmann
Anne Rinchiuso Hasselmann*
Affiliation:
Ms Hasselmann was with the Bureau of Emergency Management, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, at the time this article was authored.
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Anne Rinchiuso Hasselmann. (e-mail [email protected]).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objectives

A robust medical volunteer program is critical to ensuring a successful response to public health and medical emergencies. The New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene created the NYC Medical Reserve Corps in 2003 to build a multidisciplinary team of health professionals who wish to assist NYC with response during large-scale health emergencies. This article reports on the search to determine which recruitment activities have been most successful to date, with the goal of modeling future activities upon those that worked best.

Methods

A retrospective review of effectiveness of recruitment strategies to identify and register new NYC Medical Reserve Corps volunteers was undertaken.

Results

A broad range of recruitment activities have been implemented since the program's inception, with varying degrees of success. Various recruitment modalities were tried, including direct invitations to licensed professionals by the NYC Health Commissioner and announcements through professional organization partners. The direct invitation by the NYC Health Commissioner to health professionals licensed in 1 of the 5 boroughs of NYC has proved to be the most successful recruitment tool to date.

Conclusions

The local health commissioner or other trusted community figure is an excellent messenger for recruiting emergency volunteers. It is also critical that recruitment messages reach as many potential volunteers as possible to ensure that the requisite number of volunteers and mix of professional disciplines are identified. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2013;7:266-271)

Keywords

medical volunteersMedical Reserve Corpsemergency volunteersvolunteer recruitment strategies
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , June 2013 , pp. 266 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Office of the Civilian Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps. Accessed November 18, 2009. www.medicalreservecorps.govGoogle Scholar
2. Medical Reserve Corps NYC www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/em/mrc.shtml. Accessed January 8, 2011.Google Scholar
3.Qureshi, KA, Merrill, JA, Gershon, RM, Calero-Breckheimer, A. Emergency preparedness training for public health nurses: a pilot study. J Ur ban Health. 2002;79(3):413-416.Google Scholar
4.Alexander, GC, Wynia, MK. Ready and willing? Physicians’ sense of preparedness for bioterrorism. Health Aff (Millwood). 2003;22(5):189-197.Google Scholar
5.Qureshi, KA, Gershon, RR, Sherman, MF, etal. Health care workers’ ability and willingness to report to duty during catastrophic disasters. J Urban Health. 2005;82(3):378-388.Google Scholar
6.Shapira, Y, Marganitt, B, Roziner, I, Shochet, T, Bar, Y, Shemer, J. Willingness of staff to report to their hospital duties following an unconventional missile attack: a state-wide survey. Isr J Med Sci. 1991;27(11-12):704-711.Google Scholar
7.Lanzilotti, SS, Galanis, D, Leoni, N, Craig, B. Hawaii medical professionals assessment. Hawaii Med J. 2002;61(8):162-173.Google Scholar
8.Gullion, JS. School nurses as volunteers in a bioterrorism event. Biosecur Bioterror. 2004;2(2):112-117.Google Scholar
9.Crane, JS, McCluskey, JD, Johnson, GT, Harbison, RD. Assessment of community healthcare providers ability and willingness to respond to emergencies resulting from bioterrorist attacks. J Emerg Trauma Shock. 2010;3(1):13-20.Google Scholar
10.Balicer, RD, Omer, SB, Barnett, DJ, Everly, GS Jr. Local public health workers’ perceptions toward responding to an influenza pandemic. BMC Public Health. 2006;6:99.Google Scholar
11.Rinchiuso, A. Results from the 2004 NYC Medical Reserve Corps Volunteer Survey. Paper presented at: the Medical Reserve Corps National Leadership Conference. San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2005.Google Scholar
12.Marquez, M, Patel, P, Raphael, M, Morgenthau, BM. The danger of declining funds: Public Health Preparedness in NYC. Biosecur Bioterror. 2009;7(3):337-345.Google Scholar