LAU: Toward Enhancing Lebanon’s Health Emergency Preparedness

LAU: Toward Enhancing Lebanon’s Health Emergency Preparedness

NNA - The Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing (ARCSON) signed an agreement today with UK-Med to provide training on health emergency preparedness for medical and paramedical students, and to foster research in this area.

For more than 25 years, the Manchester-based organization has provided emergency response and capacity building to communities in the aftermath of natural or man-made disasters, disease outbreaks and post conflict situations.

UK-Med has been active in Lebanon since the Beirut Port explosion and is now partnering with LAU to implement its two-pronged program of training and research on healthcare in humanitarian crises, a rare feature of medical and nursing education in Lebanon.

LAU President Michel E. Mawad drew from the painful experience of the August 4 explosion to highlight that “it is imperative for our institution to seek the training and expertise necessary to handle such a disaster and to offer best services possible to save lives and improve the quality of life for the survivors.”

The ongoing, multilayered economic, social and health crises in Lebanon suggest that the population is “at higher risk for emergencies and disasters,” according to a UK-Med report, which also adds that research into best practices and emergency programs at the tertiary education level is scarce.

“There is no better partner