West Texas Medical Reserve Corps

What is the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC)? The Medical Reserve Corps serves under the office of the United States Surgeon General. The organization was unveiled during President Bush's 2002 State of the Union Address, in which he asked all Americans to volunteer in support of their country. The primary role of the local MRC unit is to supplement the community emergency response systems already in place. While the services performed by Medical Reserve Corps units around the nation may differ, many have agreed to support two critical Homeland Security issues: 1) ensuring medical surge capacity which is the ability to meet the need for an abundance of medical workers during public health emergencies, and 2) supporting the deployment and dispensing of emergency medications from the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). The West Texas Medical Reserve Corps needs volunteers to fill these responsibilities. Volunteers with medical and non-medical backgrounds are encouraged to submit applications. It is important for MRC volunteers to know and understand: There may be organized chaos at the Point of Dispensing site. First responders are assessing and evaluating the situation and volunteers may not be called immediately for scheduling, sit tight. If a responding agency calls and you cannot be reached, you will be skipped over for scheduling. You can call back in.  The nature of an event may dictate the response, meaning that MRC volunteers must be flexible to meet the demands of the day.  During an emergency situation, resources and personnel may be in short supply. Everyone must be willing to pitch-in and do whatever it takes to get the job done.  As a volunteer, you must be self-sufficient; providing your own transportation, meals, water, and other necessities.  Certain events have very specific responses, such as SNS deployment and opening of PODs, while other events may require more planning before a response system is put into place.

Mission Statement The mission of the West Texas Medical Reserve Corps is to enhance the regional response capabilities in the event of an emergency, disaster or disease outbreak by providing a coordinated response using locally recruited medical, behavioral health, public health, and health support volunteers. The Medical Reserve Corps volunteers will also work to improve the overall health, preparedness, and well-being of the region. As a Medical Reserve Corps volunteer, What training is required? Volunteer Orientation introduces volunteers to the West Texas MRC, the local disaster response plan, and other community resources. In addition to the orientation, continuing education courses for all interested MRC volunteers will be offered throughout the year. These courses may include, but are not limited to: Basic Disaster Life Support (BDLS),  Satellite training sessions offered by national and state emergency preparation agencies, Web-based emergency preparedness training courses, Other emergency training courses offered in West Texas by local, regional or state organizations. You must register at texasdisastervolunteerregistry.org to become a volunteer for the MRC. Volunteers are requested to also register at www.mrc.train.org. This nationally supported website (developed along with the Public Health Foundation) will ask for some personal and professional data. Please make sure to select the organization as West Texas MRC. We are also in Region VI. If you have already completed any disaster-preparedness training, you may enter it into your portfolio. The site provides for a method for tracking training completed through this website as well as adding training completed elsewhere. Use of this site will allow future communication as well as assist our Unit in tracking education. (Note: If already a member of TX TRAIN, there is no need to create a second account. Select My Account. Select the Groups tab and select Edit) to add West Texas MRC. 1.Sign up for the mandatory training courses through MRCTrain (www.mrc.train.org ): IS100 Introduction to the Incident Command System and IS700 National Incident Management System if you have not already completed these through another agency. These are FREE courses prepared by FEMA. And you will receive a certificate of completion. Note: There are many, many other very good courses available through this site---free! If you register for the courses through the MRC Train website, it will track your enrollment and completion for you (and for the West Texas MRC) 2. If you have not yet done so, check out the following websites for other information: www.redcross.org/flash/course01.v01 and review the ARC Introduction to Disaster course to assist in personal and family disaster planning. http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is22.asp Complete: Are you Ready An In-Depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness. www.medicalreservecorps.gov for multiple resources. Specifically review the April 2007 Medical Reserve Corps Core Competencies. www.citizencorps.gov/cert for information about the Citizencorps program. Training requirements will change as curriculum is standardized based upon the April 2007 MRC Core Competencies, specific job descriptions/roles are established, and the West Texas MRC Steering Committee makes recommendations regarding required training for volunteers in various roles.