Sphere Standards webinar organised for students of the Post Graduate Diploma in Health Sector Disaster Management, at the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo.
The participants are medical officers who are in service in preventive and curative health services and who are selected through a competitive process. They undergo one-year training with six months of classroom teaching and six months of practicum in a hospital where they prepare a disaster plan, train the hospital staff, and test the plans through a simulation exercise. They will contribute to disaster management activities in the country, hospitals, and the community.
The SPHERE seminar is a part of the module Environmental Health in Emergencies. The sixteen participants are divided into five groups based on the thematic areas of SPHERE. They will make a presentation followed by a discussion on the comments by the reviewers.
One of the core objectives of these sessions is to provide networking opportunities for the trainees to reach out to relevant stakeholders during crises and emergencies to effectively implement SPHERE standards.