Kubilay Kaptan

Bio: Kubilay Kaptan is an academic researcher from Istanbul Aydın University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Emergency management & European union. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 23 publications receiving 250 citations. Previous affiliations of Kubilay Kaptan include Boğaziçi University & Beykent University.

Identifying deficiencies in national and foreign medical team responses through expert opinion surveys: implications for education and training.

Abstract: Introduction: Unacceptable practices in the delivery of international medical assistance are reported after every major international disaster; this raises concerns about the clinical competence and practice of some foreign medical teams (FMTs). The aim of this study is to explore and analyze the opinions of disaster management experts about potential deficiencies in the art and science of national and FMTs during disasters and the impact these opinions might have on competency-based education and training. Method: This qualitative study was performed in 2013. A questionnaire-based evaluation of experts’ opinions and experiences in responding to disasters was conducted. The selection of the experts was done using the purposeful sampling method, and the sample size was considered by data saturation. Content analysis was used to explore the implications of the data. Results: This study shows that there is a lack of competency-based training for disaster responders. Developing and performing standardized training courses is influenced by shortcomings in budget, expertise, and standards. There is a lack of both coordination and integration among teams and their activities during disasters. The participants of this study emphasized problems concerning access to relevant resources during disasters. Conclusion: The major findings of this study suggest that teams often are not competent during the response phase because of education and training deficiencies. Foreign medical teams and medically related nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) do not always

Education and Training Initiatives for Crisis Management in the European Union: A Web-based Analysis of Available Programs

Abstract: Introduction: Education and training are key elements of disaster management. Despite national and international educational programs in disaster management, there is no standardized curriculum available to guide the European Union (EU) member states. European- based Disaster Training Curriculum (DITAC), a multiple university-based project financially supported by the EU, is charged with developing a holistic and highlystructured curriculum and courses for responders and crisis managers at a strategic and tactical level. The purpose of this study is to qualitatively assess the prevailing preferences and characteristics of disaster management educational and training initiatives (ETIs) at a postgraduate level that currently exist in the EU countries. Methods: An Internet-based qualitative search was conducted in 2012 to identify and analyze the current training programs in disaster management. The course characteristics were evaluated for curriculum, teaching methods, modality of delivery, target groups, and funding. Results: The literature search identified 140 ETIs, the majority (78%) located in United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Master level degrees were the primary certificates granted to graduates. Face-to-face education was the most common teaching method (84%). Approximately 80% of the training initiatives offered multi- and cross-disciplinary disaster management content. A competency-based approach to curriculum content was present in 61% of the programs. Emergency responders at the tactical level were the main target group. Almost all programs were self-funded. Conclusion: Although ETIs currently exist, they are not broadly available in all 27 EU countries. Also, the curricula do not cover all key elements of disaster management in a standardized and competency-based structure. This study has identified the need to

Education in disaster management and emergencies: defining a new European course

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Unremitting natural disasters, deliberate threats, pandemics, and humanitarian suffering resulting from conflict situations necessitate swift and effective response paradigms. The European Union's (EU) increasing visibility as a disaster response enterprise suggests the need not only for financial contribution but also for instituting a coherent disaster response approach and management structure. The DITAC (Disaster Training Curriculum) project identified deficiencies in current responder training approaches and analyzed the characteristics and content required for a new, standardized European course in disaster management and emergencies. METHODS: Over 35 experts from within and outside the EU representing various organizations and specialties involved in disaster management composed the DITAC Consortium. These experts were also organized into 5 specifically tasked working groups. Extensive literature reviews were conducted to identify requirements and deficiencies and to craft a new training concept based on research trends and lessons learned. A pilot course and program dissemination plan was also developed. RESULTS: The lack of standardization was repeatedly highlighted as a serious deficiency in current disaster training methods, along with gaps in the command, control, and communication levels. A blended and competency-based teaching approach using exercises combined with lectures was recommended to improve intercultural and interdisciplinary integration. CONCLUSION: The goal of a European disaster management course should be to standardize and enhance intercultural and inter-agency performance across the disaster management cycle. A set of minimal standards and evaluation metrics can be achieved through consensus, education, and training in different units. The core of the training initiative will be a unit that presents a realistic situation "scenario-based training." (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;0:1-11). Language: en

Education in disaster management: what do we offer and what do we need? Proposing a new global program

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Although there is a significant willingness to respond to disasters, a review of post-event reports following incidents shows troubling repeated patterns with poorly integrated response activities and response managers inadequately trained for the requirements of disasters. This calls for a new overall approach in disaster management. METHODS: An in-depth review of the education and training opportunities available to responders and disaster managers has been undertaken, as well as an extensive review of the educational competencies and their parent domains identified by subject matter experts as necessary for competent performance. RESULTS: Seven domains of competency and competencies that should be mastered by disaster mangers were identified. This set of domains and individual competencies was utilized to define a new and evolving curriculum. In order to evaluate and assess the mastery of each competency, objectives were more widely defined as activities under specific topics, as the measurable elements of the curriculum, for each managerial level. CONCLUSIONS: This program enables interagency cooperation and collaboration and could be used to increase and improve decision-makers' understanding of disaster managers' capabilities; at the strategic/tactical level to promote the knowledge and capability of the disaster managers themselves; and as continuing education or further career development for disaster managers at the operational level. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;page 1 of 20). Language: en

An Introduction to Islamic Law

Abstract: Description: Islamic law, the sacred law of Islam grounded in the Qur!!n, the practice of the Prophet Mu\"ammad, and the writings of Muslim scholars and jurists, stretches back nearly 1500 years. In this course, we will explore various aspects of Islamic law as seen through the eyes of one of the great minds of the Middle Ages, Ibn Rushd (known to the West as Averroës, d. 1196). Based on readings from Ibn Rushd’s handbook of Islamic law, The Distinguished Jurist’s Primer (Bid!yat al-mujtahid), and other texts, this course will examine Islamic legal doctrine relating to criminal and penal law, ritual purity, dietary rules, family law, commercial law, and the law of war. Additional readings will deal with the role of the Qur!!n in early Islamic law, gender, Muslim feminism and the law, and some contemporary Muslim responses to the Islamic legal tradition. Students will learn the main outlines of the history of Islamic law, its major concepts, and selected areas of legal doctrine. Comparative analyses of legal doctrines will also serve to introduce students to some general legal concepts. No previous background in Arabic or Islamic studies is required for this course.

Current response and management decisions of the European Union to the COVID-19 outbreak: A review

Abstract: COVID-19 has proven to be a formidable challenge for many countries in the European Union to manage effectively. The European Union has implemented numerous strategies to face emerging issues. Member States have adopted measures such as the closure of borders and significant limitations on the mobility of people to mitigate the spread of the virus. An unprecedented crisis coordination effort between Member States has facilitated the ability to purchase equipment, personal protective equipment, and other medical supplies. Attention has also been focused on providing substantive money for research to find a vaccine and promote effective treatment therapies. Financial support has been made available to protect worker salaries and businesses to help facilitate a return to a functional economy. Lessons learned to date from COVID-19 in the European Union are many; the current crisis highlights the need to think about future pandemics from a population-based management approach and apply outside the box critical thinking. Due to the complexity, intensity, and frequency of complex disasters, global leaders in healthcare, government, and business will need to pivot from siloed approaches to decision-making to embrace multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary levels of cooperation. This cooperation requires courage and leadership to recognize that changes are necessary to avoid making the same mistakes we have planned countless times on avoiding. This study focuses on the European Union’s initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic, starting with how the European Union first learned and processed the global information arising out of China, followed by the incremental population-based medicine/management decisions made that currently are defining the European Union’s capacity and capability. The capacity to organize, deliver, and monitor care to a specific clinical population under a population-based management target includes strict social distancing strategies, contact testing and tracing, testing for the virus antigen and its antibodies, isolation, and treatment modalities such as new mitigating medications, and finally, a vaccine.

Explaining Science in the Classroom

Abstract: Many of us recall, nostalgically, the halcyon days of Nuffield Physics which emphasized direct learning through hands-on activities - `do and understand!'. And the role of the teacher changed. Discovery/individualized learning, worksheets, continuous assessment, modules, computers, videos, interactive systems, Internet.... And the role of the teacher became more and more stressful. Administration, assessment, preparation, discipline... new equipment, new techniques, new problems, new labours. It's good to talk This book shows in a compelling and convincing way how one of the central roles of a science teacher can be re-established by `bringing attention back to how teachers explain - back in effect to a neglected aspect of rhetoric in the science classroom'. It is concerned primarily with teachers talking to groups of students. And to demonstrate the efficacy of the spoken, or in this case the written, word the book contains no photographs, no charts, no graphs, no equations and only three relatively trivial diagrams. The authors consider teaching techniques involving attention-grabbing interactions between teachers and students. In a series of recorded science lessons teachers explain various science concepts and the authors then analyse the nature of these explanations. To start a lesson a teacher might provoke a disagreement. Leon: Do you think that you can tell, if you're having a baby, if you're having a boy or girl? Student 1: The shape of it, that's what I heard. Student 2: I don't believe that. Student 3: That's what I heard... Leon: Okay, a little baby brother, a penis about this big, okay.... True? You're telling me that that alters the swelling. Alternatively a teacher could use students' interest in, for example, bodily functions to start a discussion. Retelling stories, such as the bizarre episode of the French-Canadian fur trapper whose stomach was opened by a gunshot wound, and whose doctor used the opportunity to study the process of digestion, is another approach illustrated in the book. Interest can also be aroused by a startling demonstration such as dropping potassium into water. An unexpurgated account of the pupils' reactions then leads to a discussion of safety procedures. What of the physics examples? Alas they are few, far between and far from fun! Indeed we are told that `The question of what determines the period of oscillation of a pendulum, not to mention how to analyse motion under gravity, might stand as prototypes of the supremely uninteresting'. Can physics no longer compete with sex and violent reactions? Explanations Explanations can involve collecting and reshaping ideas from the class, offering a `story', giving the class new words to be practised or simply stating the theory and discussing applications of it. Scientific explanations are analogous to stories of how things come about, but the actors (`entities') in the story are often unfamiliar. These entities, material and abstract, must first be mastered. `Explanations are like the tips of icebergs with a large amount of supporting knowledge lurking below the surface'. Before knowledge which is appropriate to a scientific community can be used in schools it has to be `reworked', that is adapted to teaching at a given level. Finally the scientific theories must be shown to relate to the real world of matter. `The student certainly learns science in interaction with a teacher, but the student also constructs explanations in interactions with the physical world. We might label this `material semosis'. This looks surprisingly like hands-on experience! So have we come full circle... and reinvented the wheel? Explaining as communication This is a book about communication. It is copiously illustrated with transcripts taken from recordings of secondary school science teachers explaining science concepts. It is a pity that the commendable communicating skills of these teachers have not always been matched by the clarity of the authors' analyses. Here is a paragraph from `Explaining as Communication'. `We therefore see the unity of explanation not as deriving from the form of texts or of units of texts, but from patterns of factors which influence explanatory contexts. The textual units which express or realize explanations are quite diverse. Their diversity is to be accounted for in terms of the social and institutional structures of explanatory contexts. Thus we have not arrived at a taxonomy of explanatory forms; but instead developed a means of describing characteristics of explantory contexts'. Follow that!?

Disaster Preparedness among Health Professionals and Support Staff: What is Effective? An Integrative Literature Review.

Abstract: Introduction It is important that health professionals and support staff are prepared for disasters to safeguard themselves and the community during disasters. There has been a significantly heightened focus on disasters since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York (USA); however, despite this, it is evident that health professionals and support staff may not be adequately prepared for disasters. Report An integrative literature review was performed based on a keyword search of the major health databases for primary research evaluating preparedness of health professionals and support staff. The literature was quality appraised using a mixed-methods appraisal tool (MMAT), and a thematic analysis was completed to identify current knowledge and gaps. Discussion The main themes identified were: health professionals and support staff may not be fully prepared for disasters; the most effective content and methods for disaster preparedness is unknown; and the willingness of health professionals and support staff to attend work and perform during disasters needs further evaluation. Gaps were identified to guide further research and the creation of new knowledge to best prepare for disasters. These included the need for: high-quality research to evaluate the best content and methods of disaster preparedness; inclusion of the multi-disciplinary health care team as participants; preparation for internal disasters; the development of validated competencies for preparedness; validated tools for measurement; and the importance of performance in actual disasters to evaluate preparation. Conclusion The literature identified that all types of disaster preparedness activities lead to improvements in knowledge, skills, or attitude preparedness for disasters. Most studies focused on external disasters and the preparedness of medical, nursing, public health, or paramedic professionals. There needs to be a greater focus on the whole health care team, including allied health professionals and support staff, for both internal and external disasters. Evaluation during real disasters and the use of validated competencies and tools to deliver and evaluate disaster preparedness will enhance knowledge of best practice preparedness. However, of the 36 research articles included in this review, only five were rated at 100% using the MMAT. Due to methodological weakness of the research reviewed, the findings cannot be generalized, nor can the most effective method be determined. Gowing JR , Walker KN , Elmer SL , Cummings EA . Disaster Preparedness among Health Professionals and Support Staff: What is Effective? An Integrative Literature Review. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2017;32(3):321–328.