What is an Incident Command System? Designed to foster effective and efficient management of incidents such as natural disasters, the Incident Command System (ICS) is a framework that allows for a cooperative response across one or more organizations. Both government and non-government entities rely on ICS in responding to catastrophic events. Most often, disaster planning experts use it to coordinate activities in the areas of command, operations, planning, logistics, intelligence, finance and administration. When run properly, an ICS simplifies communication, coordination and implementation of responses.

When more than 130 students graduated in May, Emory’s School of Nursing staff were elated. While always a time of excitement and joy, this graduation was markedly different. It meant much more than the usual culmination of hard work; it meant that students had steadfastly held on to their goals while their worlds shifted around them in dangerous and unprecedented ways. Students were guided and overseen by a team of staff, faculty and administrators that worked around the clock for months to ensure their safety, decrease their stress and keep the school operating, and make certain graduation happened.

In early March, Dean Linda McCauley tasked several faculty and staff members with assessing the scope and scale of the challenges and coming up with an approach. Here, in their own words, they explain what they did and what they learned.

Start with a framework like the incident command system

Kristy Martyn: Dean McCauley asked me to take on leadership around safety, education, and students when we initially began to respond to the pandemic. We needed a roadmap, and fortunately, Elizabeth Downes connected me with her disaster planning colleagues. They introduced the incident command structure and we worked together to adapt it for academia. For most of that month, we met daily, because of the rapidly changing situation.

Elizabeth Downes: Incident command organizes chaos; it allows for a uniform and consistent way to communicate.

Create a plan, define outcomes, and delineate roles

Kristy Martyn: We also needed an incident action plan. Jasmine Hoffman and I set that up. It provided clear objectives and metrics so we were on the same page with safety first, as we supported education, business, and other areas. We knew what we were looking for in terms of outcomes, and we ended up with the outcomes we wanted – including on-time graduation, which was fantastic.

Sandra Dunbar: Delineating roles and responsibilities was critical from the beginning – at the same time, it was important to get the best input from everyone, regardless of their role.

Elizabeth Downes: An incident action plan offers management by objective, a proactive approach rather than a reactive one. You have a central mission and you know who is responsible for what. Jennifer Neely created a Smartsheet; Kristy Martyn and Emory Kent added their input, and we used it to both to track progress and to provide an agenda for meetings. The beauty of it is that it allows for coordination, information flow, and even a level of analysis and support for decision-making.

Provide clear direction to build cooperation

Kristy Martyn: Responding to the pandemic has offered big reminder to be aligned with leadership, and we’ve had very clear, transparent messaging and direction from the dean.

Sandra Dunbar: It has been important for leadership to stay in tune with guidance from our leaders at the university. Because of the novelty of this pandemic, direction naturally changes as we learn more. That’s why we operate in a chain of command, and that's important in this type of crisis. We might not always agree with it, but we adapt to it and make it work in our environment.

Invest in technology so you have an infrastructure to build on

Steve Ellwood: Last year, Emory made Zoom part of our business and academic environment. So, before the pandemic hit, 95% of our faculty and staff had used it already. We normally record a lot of our classes and meetings, so we were ready to apply that more broadly, with a little bit of training. Students easily transitioned into remote learning.

We also recommend accelerating the equipment replacement cycle because usage increases so much when everything is remote. Purchase laptops rather than desktop computers; nobody is going to be working from one location anymore. This will have additional benefits across units or schools, because staff can share an office or work from home, and easily take work everywhere.

Be creative about course load and grading

Carolyn Clevenger: Consider frontloading the didactic portions of coursework to allow for flexibility, so that students can complete their coursework at any time. This asynchronous approach will help as clinical sites begin to open, so graduate students can get back into the clinical setting as quickly as possible. That way, they can work whenever they're permitted to work without having to limit themselves because they're in class on these days.

Strengthen existing partnerships by flexing when you can

Sandra Dunbar: The School of Nursing, in partnership with Emory Healthcare (EHC), runs the Wesley Woods Graduate Simulation and Skills Facility, where we teach advanced assessment, offer lab trainings, and more. Early in the pandemic, Emory Healthcare needed space for a screening clinic.  We moved quickly out of Wesley Woods, so that the clinic could open. We’ve pivoted where needed for things like that.

Adam Malm: EHC believed the Wesley Woods space would be a good location for the screening clinic and they reached out to discuss this with us. I talked with leadership and we had to figure out how to do it; when we were going to move our people; where we would put them; and when EHC could move their clinic in. Within an hour, we told them the space was theirs. We were out of there the next day before mid-afternoon, and we were happy to do it. 

Trust people to step up

Steve Ellwood:  Because of the way Adam Malm organized the administrative support team, they were poised to help. They were used to being nimble and changing roles or get assignments that might not be in their usual domain.

We had roughly 120 classes that had to be moved online. Luckily, most of the faculty had some experience managing smaller Zoom meetings. But when you’re suddenly having to manage a large class on Zoom–with dozens of participants–that becomes yet another activity.

So, we asked the pool of administrators and some other support personnel if they'd be willing to be retrained as Zoom technical managers.

Over three days, our instructional design staff trained everyone on the Zoom control system, with a basic operating script on how to help faculty manage those classes. Our new Zoom techs help them make sure that when a guest lecturer or speaker is addressing the class that everybody has their microphones turned off. They assist with Zoom etiquette and watch the chat box, where students type in questions. And they can answer technical questions for students or guests that have problems around their audio or screen-sharing.

Adam Malm:  When we went to remote, our operations and administrative services team talked about what it was like to consider the community as a greater good and how we could best help continue the mission of education for nursing leaders. We all agreed that we were willing to do whatever it took to ensure the progression of our students, and support our colleagues. Acting as Zoom support put into perspective just how important their roles are, whether we’re in a pandemic or not. And, they saw firsthand the quality of education that our students are getting.

Be compassionate with your community

Sandra Dunbar: One of the guiding principles of our response has been that while making progress is important, not letting perfectionism slow us down was also important.

Carolyn Clevenger: We made a point of recognizing the amount of stress people may be dealing with. We gave people the benefit of the doubt, and offered a little bit of space, finding ways to accommodate when we could. We worked hard to be generous in spirit with each other and to have a lot of empathy.

Kristy Martyn: The Dean reminded us repeatedly that we must be a community of compassion. She said that it was okay – and necessary – to let some things go, that we could fix things as we moved forward.

When she said that, she gave us all permission to be flexible. That was huge.