Teaching during a pandemic event: are universities prepared?

As the threat of pandemic events streaks across the planet, the question then becomes can universities, particularly health science centers charged with producing the next generation of health care providers, continue their teaching and educational mission by offering classes in a distance environment, completely uncentralized, away from the traditional centralized campus? A sampling of campus websites were reviewed to gather a sense of how well prepared we are, followed up with a survey administered to faculty and staff in the School of Nursing at Vanderbilt University. The concern being that if a technology rich environment such as Vanderbilt is not fully prepared to continue teaching in a pandemic event, what concerns should we have for other institutions providing health care provider education that may not have access to the resources a Vanderbilt has? Finally, a set of recommendations to schools is presented, based on the findings.