The Role of Public Health Nurses in Bioterrorism Preparedness - 13 Years Later

Abstract

We follow up on the findings from an article published 13 years ago, highlighting the role of public health nurses in bioterrorism preparedness. That study found that public health nurses working in the field of bioterrorism preparedness, while dedicated to their responsibilities, experienced multiple barriers in conducting disease surveillance, including a vague scope of practice, truncated funding, and lack of standard education in public health and bioterrorism preparedness. We used a scoping review methodology to inform national developments and searched online information sources for the State of Washington to demonstrate the status of current public health and bioterrorism preparedness at the local level. We suggest that our findings could inform local, state and federal decision-making for ensuring robust bioterrorism preparedness and improvement in public health nurses workforce supply.