NURSES:
Outbreak, Opioids & OC ACCEPT As news broke in late April of
were also given an update on
measles in Orange County (OC),
opioids, which included the latest
the majority of Public Health
trends in OC and nurses were
Nurses (PHN) in the OC Health
given an introduction into the OC
Care Agency (HCA) had already
ACCEPT program (Acceptance
gone through their latest training
through Compassionate Care,
to assist in a disease outbreak.
Empowerment and Positive
Exactly one week before the first 2019 measles case was confirmed
Transformation).
such as the incubation period (i.e. time from when a person is exposed to the disease to when he/she develops symptoms) and
The Epi 101 training, given by Dr.
communicable period for the
Michele Cheung, Deputy Medical
disease (e.g., time during which
Director of Epidemiology and
a person can spread a disease)
the first of four Epi-training courses
Assessment (E&A), focused on
helps investigators figure out a
being planned for PHN with the
key concepts of communicable
timeline for the transmission of the
subsequent trainings (Epi 102,
diseases, principles of epidemi-
disease and determine who might
103, 104) targeted on the nurses
ology and steps of an outbreak
have been exposed to the infected
participating in the Public Health
investigation. Dr. Cheung said each
person while he/she was conta-
Services (PHS) Preparedness
disease usually will have its own
gious. In their training, PHN were
teams (Clinical Response Team
case definition based on the clinical
given the chance to practice finding
and Investigation Response Team,
signs and symptoms and labora-
those answers during an exercise
see related story page 6). In addi-
tory test results. Understanding the
where the nurses paired off. They
tion to the Epi 101 training, nurses
key infectious disease concepts,
interviewed each other (utilizing
in OC, the first group, of eventually all PHN took part in Epidemiology 101 Training (Epi 101). This was
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