Building Your Volunteer Program: Lessons Learned from the Fairfax

Medical Reserve Corps

Donna M. Foster, MRC CoordinatorJesse R. Habourn, MRC Database Manager

Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) in Fairfax County, VA

Primary function: operate mass dispensing sites

– Current membership: 3,100 Medical & non-medical volunteers

29% medical 71% non-medical

Secondary functions– Community Health Partners: subset of MRC volunteers

distribute health promotion/disease prevention information to public

– “Interested in other volunteer opportunities?”

Fairfax MRC Planning

All hazards approach using smallpox as framework

Worst case scenario:– Multiple outbreaks– Mass vaccination of all 1.2 million Fairfax County

residents within three to five days– Permits scaling down for alternative strategies or targeted

events

Fundamentals of Fairfax MRC Response Plan

Dispensing sites located at 24 high schools and George Mason University

Requires 54 teams of app. 234 volunteers each

Team will work 12 hour shifts for 3-5 days

Fundamentals of Fairfax MRC Response Plan cont’d

Residents arrive at dispensing site via bus pick-up from:

– Elementary and middle schools– High school bus stops– 4 satellite locations

Residents with handicap parking stickers may drive to site if necessary

Media to alert residents about the plan

Fairfax MRC Organization

Incident Command System (ICS)– Clear chain of command– Easily plug in new volunteers/staff– National standard

Joint partnership: MRC volunteer team, school system staff, Fairfax PD

– Incident Coordinator of each share Unified Command

Mass Dispensing Site Staffing

One MRC Team 1 Incident Coordinator 104 Site Assistant (min.) 1 Safety Officer 2 Medical Directors 1 Public Info. Officer (Media School) 2 NP/PA 4 Administrative Asst. 41 Registered Nurse 1 Volunteer Coordinator 4 Reg. Nurse Unit Leader 1 Support Branch Director 6 Physician 1 Sup. Branch Deputy Dir. 2 Pharmacist10 Interpreters (min.) 2 Pharmacy Technician 1 ASL Interpreter 6 Public Health Staff 1 Data Entry Unit Leader 6 Mental Health Professional24 Data Entry Specialists 6 Greeter (Counselor)

1 Flow Control Unit Leader 6 Special Needs Asst.

Total = 234 (min.)

Critical Success Factors

Realization regarding the magnitude of the problem (Anthrax 2001, 2005 scare)

Executive sponsorship: CAO and Health Officer/Director of jurisdiction support at outset is crucial; eventual endorsement from elected officials

Buy-in from key stakeholders in emergency response (police, fire, schools, transportation, medical community)

Lessons LearnedThe Do’s

Develop partnerships with community organizations

Factor diverse and special needs populations into your plan; be ethnically, linguistically sensitive

Dedicate staff resources necessary to develop emergency plan and program infrastructure

Lessons LearnedThe Do’s cont’d

Tag onto existing contracts for reverse 911, text/voice alerting systems, etc. to develop your volunteer database (eliminates RFP bidding process)

Utilize NIMS as an organizational concept for response plan

Use physicians in medical roles, not as Incident Coordinators or other leadership positions

Consider using mobile teams for senior and developmentally disabled populations

Lessons LearnedThe Do’s cont’d

Develop Job Action Sheets (JAS): list of duties volunteer can expect to perform

– Be as detailed as possible – describe every single duty– Create a JAS for each volunteer position in each unit

(Nurse will have different duties in Unit A than in Unit B)– This is the core of training!

Always explain that program is evolving and that changes may be made

Practice your plan; adjust as necessary

Lessons LearnedThe Don’ts

Don’t start recruiting until plan is in place Don’t start recruiting until system to manage

volunteer information and communication is in place

Don’t let too much time pass between initial volunteer sign-up and first communication

Don’t promise what you can’t deliver

Fairfax MRC Alert Network

www.fairfaxmrc.org Comprehensive online system manages

volunteer contact info., communication, participation and program analysis

Scaleable, fully customizable to adapt to changing program

Created by Roam Secure, Inc.

Alerting Volunteers with MRCAN

Text alerts to: E-mail Cell phones w/ text messaging Alpha-numeric pagers PDAs

Initiate remote alerts from cells or pagers

Include attachments

MRCAN Features

Grouping Reporting Track:

Volunteer contact info Trainings completed Replies to alerts Bounced messages or

invalid devices System usage

Planned Improvements to MRCAN

Increased alerting functionality– HTML-based messages– Automated notifications (application approval, training

reminders, etc.)– Integrate interactive voice response to reply to alerts

Virtual tour of dispensing site Generate team rosters and volunteer staffing

plans on the fly GIS compatibility; GIS alerting

Planned Improvements to MRCAN

Automate training sign-up process Logical, exclusion-based application process Library of information on biological agents, emergency

preparedness, etc. Volunteer photo ID creation/management Online training capability

Advice on Alert Networks

Encourage volunteers to manage own account Limit e-mail alerts to important announcements only.

Limit cell/pager alerts to emergencies and annual tests only

Provide wealth of tech. support material Have plan to deal with spam blockers and volunteers

without e-mail accounts/cells, etc. Make website a place volunteers want to visit instead

of a place they’re required to visit Install a backup server

Recruitment Strategies

Use volunteers to recruit others

Get your local politicians involved

Capitalize on current events re: issue news releases (e.g. recent anthrax scare)

Target non-essential public workers

Direct mail to: Pharmacists Nurses Physicians Recently retired first

responders, military personnel and jurisdiction employees

Physicians recruit physicians; phone calls seem to work best

Training Provided

All members receive:– General orientation– Role-specific training– Participate in annual exercise

Leaders additionally receive:– Leadership/Incident Command– Hands on Practice– Leadership Meeting at Assigned Site

Over 1/3 of volunteers have participated in training as of early April 2005

E-newsletter Fairfax MRC News

Thank you!