Instructions For Facilitators
Case study
Facilitators guide
Crisis Management and Communication During a Covid-19 Outbreak Among Foreign Temporary Workers
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Facilitation of a case study
Case studies can be used to bring a small group of people to a common understanding of a public health problem by going together through a real-life scenario and solving a set of assignments. Case studies can be used during tabletop exercises or training sessions in which key personnel are gathered to discuss simulated emergency situations. By discussing simulated emergency situations, participants are encouraged to think through different aspects of emergency preparedness and response. Engaging with simulation exercises will allow key personnel to more effectively respond to an emergency when it arises.
This case study is aimed for tabletop exercises organised in municipalities for different actors involved in outbreak response. This case study is especially relevant for municipalities that have large numbers of foreign temporary workers, where an outbreak response needs to involve the employers and possibly other municipal services, including public health services.
This case study is based on a real COVID-19 outbreak in a small municipality in Norway. To ensure anonymity, parts of the case study have been fictionalized. However, the main content reflects the actual outbreak, its challenges and lessons learned. Depending on where this case study is conducted, the case study can be contextualized. Prior to conducting the case study, the facilitator can adapt the case study to the context, including replacing the relevant stakeholders and terminology (‘governor’, ‘municipality’, etc)
Each case study should have a facilitator, which in this case can be the municipal doctor, or any other actor involved in the outbreak response. Before the case study takes place, the facilitator should:
- Identify relevant participants, i.e. those who would be involved in such scenario if an outbreak would occur in the municipality, to join the exercise;
- Plan the logistics, e.g. book (virtual) meeting room and send invitations to participants;
- Familiarize him/herself with the case study and the time dedicated to each section, considering which questions could be prioritized in their municipality and which could be skipped if the discussions take too much time;
- Identify balanced and representative break out groups if appropriate, i.e. if the participant group consists of employer representatives and public health staff, break out groups may be organized to represent that mix;
- Identify sections in the case study that may be more or less relevant for specific participant groups and plan breaks accordingly, i.e. the section on the calculation of Attack Rates may be relevant for public health staff, but may be less relevant for employer representatives.
During the case study the facilitator should ensure that all participants engage in the discussion. A good way to assure everyone’s participation is to distribute reading of consecutive paragraphs taking turns moving for example in clockwise direction. This “inclusiveness” is very important because the case study is designed to stimulate discussions and sharing experiences and ideas, and thus learning from each other.
The facilitator does not need any special background knowledge on the topic of the case study. The answers to all questions for each section are provided as an introduction to the following section. To ensure that participants attempt to solve the assignments themselves, the facilitator should distribute one section of the case study at a time.
Using MS Excel for simple data analysis
The case study includes a small dataset, which is provided both as a part of the MS Word document describing the scenario and as a MS Excel file. During the table-top exercise, the use of MS Excel is not required. If the participants wish, they can practise using MS Excel for simple analysis of outbreak case data after the table-top exercise has ended. The summary tables presented in the case study can be produced in MS Excel using pivot tables.
If you have any questions or comments regarding the case study, please contact: courses@ecdc.europa.eu