The Division of the Civilian Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), part of the TRAIN learning management network, has published a national training plan, the National MRC Volunteer Training Plan, on MRC’s TRAIN portal (MRC-TRAIN). The training plan is available to all MRC units, the national network of local groups of volunteers committed to improving the public’s health, emergency response, and resiliency of their communities. Importantly, the training plan helps establish a foundational level of knowledge and skills that all MRC volunteers should have and maintain.
The National MRC Volunteer Training Plan serves as a suggested guide for training MRC volunteers at the local level. The training plan aligns with the Competencies for Disaster Medicine and Public Health (DMPH), which were adopted by the MRC in May 2015 as the new competency set for MRC volunteers and replaced the previous set of MRC Core Competencies. The DMPH Competencies, created explicitly for “disaster and public health preparedness, response, and management,” were developed by the National Center for Disaster Medicine in Public Health (NCDMPH) in 2012 and offered the MRC an alternative to fully revising its own, original competencies.1 These competencies serve as a basis to “better assess, and ultimately improve, the education and training knowledge of disaster responders.”2 With their adoption by MRC, the DMPH Competencies now support emergency preparedness training around the country.
MRC-TRAIN is an important tool used to build awareness of the National MRC Volunteer Training Plan and access to its training curriculum. By using MRC-TRAIN, MRC leadership can incorporate training from different training providers and track volunteers as they progress through the training plan. Moreover, MRC-TRAIN allows trainings to be tagged with the DMPH Competencies, making them easily searchable. When it comes to training, MRC-TRAIN is a one-stop-shop for getting opportunities out quickly to the MRC network.
MRC volunteers are invited to access the National MRC Volunteer Training Plan today and begin expanding their skills and knowledge.
1. NACCHO. MRC Adopts Competencies for Disaster Medicine and Public Health as New Competency Set for Volunteers. 4 May 2015. http://nacchopreparedness.org/?p=4620. Accessed 23 July 2015.
2. National Center for Disaster Medicine & Public Health. Competencies. http://ncdmph.usuhs.edu/KnowledgeLearning/Competencies.htm. Accessed 23 July 2015.