Documentation always needs to be done.

So, as part of the CDC grant requirements, we actually need to complete a series of exercises and training. The real bitch about it is that you can be really good at providing the training to staff, getting the exercises done and be a benefit to the community. The hardest part is adequately documenting all the effort so that the bean counters and eggheads can say it was done.

For many years public health department have completed mass medication/vaccination efforts. With the implementation of NIMS and the needs to let everyone else speak our language and us to speak theirs, we have needed to change the way we do things. For the seasonal influenza program for this year, I have had to covince the nursing staff to use the ICS forms, to document the planning efforts toward the event and to use the EP&R materiel. We get a two-fer. They get all the vaccinations out of the way in one mass clinic and we get to count the event as an exercise. From my services day: Train the way you fight and fight the way you train....