Public health crisis communication simulation scenario competition for students

Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) invites students to develop and submit a public health crisis communication simulation scenario to a competition, announced today. The application deadline is 8 March 2024. The main prize is a trip to the 17th European Public Health Conference organised by the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) in Lisbon (Portugal).

Food poisoning at the Positivus festival, the collapse of the Maxima store in Zolitūde, environmental pollution in the Šlokenbeka pond, the possible spread of rabies in Daugavpils, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic are just a few of the public health crisis situations that have happened in Latvia, which required quick strategic management of the institutions involved, as well as thoughtful and effective crisis communication.

‘The events of recent years have made it clear that large-scale public health crises have become part of our daily lives, and it is our ability to effectively manage crises, including crisis communication, that will determine how big the losses and gains will be.

Simulations at RSU have already become an essential part of the curriculum, and after participating in the educational innovation laboratory created by the Riga Business School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, we realised that public health is the field in which we will continue to develop simulations,

creating interdisciplinary cooperation between the Faculty of Communication, the Institute of Public Health, and the Medical Education Technology Centre,’ says Lāsma Šķestere, a lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Communication.

‘It has been scientifically proven that the words we use in interpersonal communication or in communication with society affect both what decisions people make about their health and what the outcome of a disease might be. Astronauts first learn to operate a spacecraft by sitting in a simulator before launching into space.

 I think that even before sitting at the helm of the population health ship, it would be valuable to first check how well we can navigate it in a safe, simulated environment.

This competition is also an opportunity for students to shape the simulation room in our university,’ says Anda Ķivīte-Urtāne, director of the Institute of Public Health at RSU, to explain the idea behind the competition.

To participate in the competition, students are invited to form interdisciplinary teams consisting of three participants. The creators of the three best scenarios will have the opportunity to present their ideas at the RSU International Student Conference (ISC) Health and Social Sciences on March 22, 2024. After the presentations of the scenarios, the winning team will be announced and the participants will get a unique opportunity to attend the 17th European Public Health Conference organised by the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) on 12-15 November, 2024 in Lisbon (Portugal).

European Public Health Conference annually gathers around 2,400 participants from all continents, of which 400 are students. The content of the conference is broad with 170 parallel sections, so not only specialists in the field of public health, but also future professionals in other fields can find a topic that interests them. The guiding theme of this year's conference is "Sailing the waves of European public health: exploring a sea of innovation". Along with more traditional public health disciplines, artificial intelligence solutions, inequality in healthcare, global health, the topic of social marketing will be widely discussed at the conference this year. Read more

The main goal of the simulation competition is to promote students' skills in managing and solving public health crisis communication, to popularise this field, as well as to develop a simulation-based educational approach.

Detailed information on the application procedure, requirements, recommendations for creating a simulation scenario, the application form, as well as the contact exchange for more convenient finding of potential team members can be found here.

Submit your idea by sending an application to alise[pnkts]curkstersu[pnkts]lv by 8 March, 2024 (17.00).