Course Catalog

The Center for Preparedness Education (PrepEd) maintains a comprehensive catalog of training programs for public health professionals, emergency managers, hospital and healthcare preparedness coordinators, first responders, and students. Programs span the full spectrum of all-hazards and biopreparedness education — from applied epidemiology and disaster life support to exercise design, hospital incident command, and specialized workshops on at-risk populations. For those who want to begin without cost, our guide to free online disaster preparedness courses offers a practical starting point across the same all-hazards spectrum.

Most courses are offered on a recurring basis, and some are available online or by request. Because dates, locations, and delivery formats change throughout the year, always confirm current scheduling on the Training Event Calendar before planning attendance. For registration questions or to bring a course to your facility or region, contact the program lead listed with each offering.

Key Takeaways

• PrepEd’s catalog covers the full preparedness cycle: epidemiology and surveillance, planning, incident command, exercise design, response operations, and recovery-oriented evaluation.
• Courses are mapped to recognized national frameworks — the National Disaster Life Support (NDLS) curricula, the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS), HSEEP exercise methodology, and OSHA’s Best Practices for Hospital-Based First Receivers.
• Several programs are competency-based and include hands-on drills or tabletop exercises, which is where most durable learning happens.
• Online options (ERC, Hospital Emergency Preparedness Coordinator) suit working professionals who cannot travel; in-person courses (Exercise Design, Hospital First Receiver, Pediatric Workshop) deliver skills that are difficult to teach remotely.
• If you are unsure where to start, match the course to your role and your current gap — not to a title. A short conversation with the listed contact will usually save you time.

Choosing the Right Course for Your Role

The single most common mistake preparedness professionals make is choosing training by title rather than by gap. Before you register, ask three questions:

1. What is my actual responsibility? A hospital EPC who owns the emergency operations plan needs different training than a clinical educator who delivers annual competency training to staff.
2. What does my accreditation or funding require? Many healthcare organizations must document HICS training, HSEEP-compliant exercises, or first-receiver training under OSHA and Joint Commission expectations. Match the course to the requirement, not the other way around.
3. What is my experience level? Several courses are explicitly designed for newcomers (the Emergency Response Coordinator and Hospital Emergency Preparedness Coordinator online courses), while others assume baseline familiarity (ICS Position-Specific Training, Hospital First Receiver Operations level).

A useful rule of thumb: foundational knowledge can often be delivered online, but skills that must be performed under stress — triage, decontamination, section-level command — should be practiced in person, ideally in a drill or tabletop setting.

If your role is…	Consider starting with…	Because…
New local public health ERC	Emergency Response Coordinator Online Course	Builds foundational knowledge across disasters, ICS, planning, and at-risk populations
New or experienced hospital EPC	Hospital Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Online	Practical, applied, and designed for people who inherited the role
Clinical or pre-hospital staff	Core/Basic/Advanced Disaster Life Support	Competency-based, all-hazards, multidisciplinary
Anyone who owns exercise planning	Exercise Design	Hands-on, modeled on FEMA/DHS and HSEEP methodology
Hospital staff who may receive contaminated patients	Hospital First Receiver	Follows OSHA Best Practices for Awareness and Operations levels
Command staff and section chiefs	ICS Position-Specific Training	Role-specific responsibilities plus a tabletop to operationalize them

Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Outbreak Investigation

Applied Epidemiology is the catalog’s deepest dive into the science of disease detection and control. The 13-module course walks participants through the entire outbreak investigation arc: surveillance, investigation, analysis, hypothesis development, implementation of control measures, evaluation of effectiveness, and report writing.

This structure mirrors the standard steps of an outbreak investigation taught by public health institutions such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and applied in state and local health departments. It is well suited to epidemiologists, public health nurses, and preparedness staff who may be pulled into a response. The emphasis on developing a written report is deliberate — documentation is what allows findings to be shared, defended, and used to improve future responses.

Disaster Life Support and Clinical Response

The National Disaster Life Support (NDLS) family — Core, Basic, and Advanced Disaster Life Support — provides the knowledge and skills health and response personnel need to execute successfully in a disaster, whether the cause is a natural disaster, a terrorist attack, or a pandemic. Through competency-based curricula, the courses emphasize an all-hazards, multidisciplinary approach to personal, institutional, and community disaster management, and they are designed to help standardize disaster training across all potential responders.

The NDLS program is a recognized national standard, developed through the American Medical Association and partner organizations, and is widely used to give clinicians and responders a shared vocabulary and framework. If your organization needs a common baseline across nursing, EMS, and emergency management, this is often the right starting point.

Hospital First Receiver complements NDLS with a facility-specific focus. This two-day training gives hospital staff an overview of hazardous response issues and the dangers of contaminated patients entering their facility, along with prevention, preparedness, and response techniques to keep the hospital safe. It follows OSHA’s Best Practices for Hospital-Based First Receivers guidelines for Awareness and Operations level training, and refresher courses are available. Because hazardous materials incidents and mass decontamination events are low-frequency, high-consequence events, refreshers matter — skills decay quickly without practice.

Mass Casualty Triage addresses the reality that transportation incidents, industrial accidents, natural disasters, and intentional acts can create situations where need exceeds a community’s immediate capability to respond. Participants learn the concept of mass casualty triage and then apply those skills in a drill situation, which begins the process of planning how to mitigate these challenges. Triage is fundamentally a decision-making discipline under uncertainty; the drill component is what converts a framework into usable judgment.

Incident Command and Hospital Operations

The Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) gives hospitals a standardized way to manage response when an event overwhelms normal operations. PrepEd offers two complementary programs:

• Hospital Incident Command Overview — an interactive session that refreshes knowledge and/or introduces basic concepts. Staff turnover and changes in hospitals dictate the need for ongoing training on HICS principles. Note that this course is not intended to meet requirements for the IS-100.HC, IS-200.HC, or IS-700.HC training available through FEMA — if you need those specific certificates, take the FEMA courses.
• ICS Position-Specific Training — Part 1 trains each section on its responsibilities, including priority tasks, a clear chain of command, accountability, communication, and coordination. Part 2 includes a tabletop exercise where sections operationalize what they just learned. The goal is to avoid duplication of effort and to improve documentation.

The distinction between the two is important. The Overview builds shared awareness across a broad audience; Position-Specific Training builds role competence for the people who will actually staff the command structure. Organizations that need to demonstrate HICS proficiency for accreditation or grant purposes should generally plan for both — awareness for the many, position-specific depth for the few who will fill those roles.

Planning, Exercise Design, and Continuous Improvement

Exercise Design is a two-day, hands-on, activity-based training that prepares participants to become the in-house disaster exercise design expert for their facility or agency. It is modeled on the DHS/FEMA three-week disaster exercise design course for emergency management and first responders and incorporates important elements of the two-day HSEEP (Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program) training.

HSEEP is the national methodology that governs how exercises are designed, conducted, evaluated, and used to drive improvement. Its core logic is a cycle: identify a capability gap, design an exercise that tests it, evaluate performance against objectives, capture after-action findings, and feed those findings back into the plan. If your organization is required to submit exercise documentation to a funding or accrediting body, familiarity with HSEEP terminology and structure is effectively mandatory.

Preparedness Symposia serve a different purpose. To meet the needs of an all-inclusive group of preparedness professionals in Nebraska, the Symposia is PrepEd’s signature series — a one-day event held at various sites across the state, bringing equivalent training and education to local communities. Topics are broad, relevant, and timely, and are often suggested by the previous year’s attendees. This is a strong choice for professionals who want situational awareness across the field rather than deep skill in a single domain.

Hospital Summit is a recurring webinar — held at least once a year — that invites all hospitals and healthcare facilities to join. During this two-to-three-hour event, representatives from the Center for Preparedness Education, Nebraska Health and Human Services, and other guest agencies provide updates on grants, policies, education, recent events, and other news that could affect healthcare emergency response personnel. Think of it as a standing channel for policy and funding intelligence rather than a skills course.

Special Populations and Pediatric Preparedness

Pediatric Workshop responds to a growing need for specialized education regarding at-risk populations. Pediatric casualties create special circumstances that must be considered in emergency planning, and this workshop addresses pediatric medical surge considerations in disasters. It offers two tracks — one for clinicians in the hospital setting and one for pre-hospital providers in the field — recognizing that the same patient presents very different challenges depending on where care is delivered.

Pediatric surge planning is one of the most frequently cited gaps in healthcare preparedness, in part because children require different equipment sizes, weight-based dosing, and psychological support than adults, and because most hospitals treat far fewer pediatric patients than adults. The Emergency Response Coordinator Online Course also addresses at-risk populations as one of its five modules, alongside introduction to disasters and public health, incident command systems, emergency planning, and exercise design and planning.

Online and On-Demand Learning

Two programs are built specifically for working professionals who cannot easily travel:

• Emergency Response Coordinator Online Course — a five-module course designed for ERCs of local public health departments, introducing the foundational knowledge needed for the role.
• Hospital Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Online — designed for the EPC who is under pressure to meet preparedness-related contractual or funding requirements, is figuring things out as they go because they did not receive much training for the job, and for whom preparedness is not their only or even primary responsibility. It is packed with practical information and hands-on application and is useful whether you have been an EPC for a few months or a few years.

Webinars are offered on request as topics are needed, which makes them a flexible option for teams that need targeted, just-in-time education on a specific issue.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know which course to take first?

Start by identifying your role and your most pressing gap, then match it to the table above. New public health ERCs and hospital EPCs generally begin with the online foundational courses; clinical and response staff typically begin with NDLS or Hospital First Receiver; anyone responsible for exercises should prioritize Exercise Design. When in doubt, contact the program lead listed with the course — a brief conversation usually clarifies the right fit.

Are these courses accredited or do they satisfy regulatory requirements?

Several programs are explicitly aligned to national standards. Hospital First Receiver follows OSHA’s Best Practices for Hospital-Based First Receivers for Awareness and Operations level training, Exercise Design incorporates HSEEP methodology, and the NDLS courses are competency-based national curricula. However, the Hospital Incident Command Overview is not intended to meet requirements for FEMA’s IS-100.HC, IS-200.HC, or IS-700.HC. Always verify specific credit and compliance requirements with your accrediting or funding body.

Can I take courses online instead of in person?

Yes — the Emergency Response Coordinator and Hospital Emergency Preparedness Coordinator courses are offered online, and webinars are available by request. Courses that involve physical skills or team interaction, such as Hospital First Receiver, Exercise Design, Mass Casualty Triage, and ICS Position-Specific Training, are best delivered in person because the hands-on and drill components are central to the learning.

How often should preparedness training be refreshed?

There is no single universal interval, but the general principle is that low-frequency, high-consequence skills — decontamination, triage, command roles — decay fastest and need the most frequent reinforcement. Many organizations refresh first-receiver and HICS training annually or biennially, and PrepEd offers refresher courses for Hospital First Receiver. Align your refresh cycle with your accreditation, grant, and exercise requirements.

Do you offer training outside of Nebraska?

PrepEd’s Preparedness Symposia are held at various sites across Nebraska specifically to bring equivalent training to local communities, and the Hospital Summit is a webinar open to hospitals and healthcare facilities. For organizations outside the region, contact the program lead to discuss delivery options, since several courses are available online or by request.

Who should attend the Preparedness Symposia versus the Hospital Summit?

The Symposia is a one-day, in-person series aimed at an all-inclusive group of preparedness professionals and covers a broad range of timely topics. The Hospital Summit is a shorter webinar focused on updates from PrepEd, Nebraska Health and Human Services, and guest agencies regarding grants, policies, education, and recent events. Choose the Symposia for broad professional development and the Summit for policy and funding intelligence.

Contacting the Center for Preparedness Education

Each program lists a dedicated contact and phone number for registration, scheduling, and questions. Because delivery formats and calendars change, confirm details through the Training Event Calendar or by reaching out directly. For professionals across Nebraska, the Midwest, and nationally, these programs represent a practical, standards-aligned path to building and sustaining all-hazards and biopreparedness capability.