Training and Exercise

Our goal is a public health and medical preparedness workforce that is well-trained and ready to respond to disasters in the State of Texas. DSHS coordinates with public health, medical, and emergency management partners to provide training for agency partners and stakeholders at the regional and local levels, based on specific and identified needs. Available training can be found on Texas TRAIN.

TRAIN Texas

TRAIN is a national Learning Network developed by the Public Health Foundation (PHF) with a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. TRAIN is partnered with government agencies, academic institutions, nationally recognized organizations, non-profits, and funded programs in the public health, healthcare, and preparedness sectors. Through this collaboration, 40 TRAIN affiliates provide thousands of classroom and e-learning training courses to more than 4 million public health workforce professionals.

What is TRAIN Texas?

TRAIN Texas as a free service is an available portal into the TRAIN Learning Network. As a Learning Management System, it provides access to local informative resources, interactive course content, and continuing education credits to stay current in the latest public health training for your area of expertise.

Explore the TRAIN Texas catalog and discover a curated collection of training plans, courses, and events today.

Visit train.org/texas/welcome to sign up for an account or review how to Create a TRAIN Texas Account below.

TRAIN Texas supports Local Health Departments

Local Health Departments in the State of Texas that require a Learning Management System can use TRAIN Texas to assist in the development, accreditation, and tracking of their workforce training at no cost. TRAIN Texas is equipped to handle thousands of newly enrolled employees and assist in grouping all employees to the appropriate training that corresponds to your local health department during enrollment. If you are interested in activating the cohort for your health department as a course provider, please contact txtrain@dshs.texas.gov to get started.

Become a Course Provider

Trainers, Instructors, and Course developers of public health-related training can utilize TRAIN Texas Learning Management System to list and link their training from their own server space to all users within Texans. All interested course providers are to apply through the TRAIN Texas portal by clicking the Become a Course Provider link. A TRAIN Texas administrator will contact you about the application process and set up a meeting for a review of the basic training and use of the system. Once completed, the necessary security is assigned to the person to begin managing their training program.

Approved TRAIN Texas course providers can:

• Post course information (online and onsite)
• Develop Training plans or pick from thousands of curated content
• Generate and manage course rosters.
• Communicate with course registrants.
• Assign and deliver continuing education credits.
• Develop and deliver evaluations to measure learner knowledge.
• Award certificates to attendees.
• Access data, including:
  • Enrollment and participation in courses.
  • Pre- and post-assessment and evaluation data.
  • Learner job roles and work settings.
  • Demographic information.
  • Learner geographic and professional information.

Create a TRAIN Texas Account

Setting up an account is easy and free to all public health workforce professionals.

1. Use your preferred web browser and enter https://www.train.org/texas/welcome into the URL search bar.
2. On the login page, select the Create Account button. Fill out all the required entries, please use your real first, and last name, and work email address. This information will be obtained by course providers and will display on certificates of completion. To never lose account access, use your work email address as the username.
3. After reading and agreeing to all the site terms, TRAIN.org will prompt a warning that you are being redirected to the TRAIN Texas Homepage.
4. The site will prompt the user to enter registration information through a notification that states, “your profile is incomplete” and “You are not set to receive email notifications from TX TRAIN.”
5. The user can click the link within the notification to manage their account or navigate to the top right corner of the site and click on their first name to be redirected to the profile page.
6. The profile page must be completed. All required information must be entered to continue taking courses, including your work address, title, organization, professional role, and work setting.
7. Under the Manage Groups tab always select groups under Texas as your state portal first. Additional groupings such as MRC, CDC, VHA, VBA MDE, Med Learning, and FDA can be added after Texas.
8. Once your profile is finalized. Click the green save button and then click the orange cancel button to return to the TRAIN Texas home page.
9. Search for courses through the TRAIN Texas Catalogue or visit the Your Learning link to review transcripts, and completed certificates or review required training sponsored by your organization.
10. Please email txtrain@dshs.texas.gov for additional technical assistance.

Account Access for HHSC Employees

All Texas Health and Human Services Commission State Enterprise Employees will have an account automatically created in the TRAIN Texas Learning Management system. All State Enterprise Employees must use their complete work e-mail address when logging in. For example, jane.doe@dshs.texas.gov.  

1. Use your preferred web browser and enter https://www.train.org/texas/welcome into the URL search bar.
2. Login with your work email address and enter your password then click the blue Login button.
3. If this is your first time logging in click the Can’t log in? link.
4. The TRAIN Texas system should prompt for a password reset by sending an email to the state agency email address. If this does not occur, please contact txtrain@dshs.texas.gov

If you receive an error message stating records cannot be found, please email txtrain@dshs.texas.gov and include your name, any name changes, previous agency work email address, and employee ID number.

TRAIN Texas Minimum System Requirements:
We recommend using the latest web browsers or mobile systems, please enable cookies, JavaScript, and popups when using the TRAIN Texas site.

Web Browsers:

• Chrome version 54+
• Edge version 13+
• Firefox version 49+
• Safari version 9+

Mobile Operating Systems:

• Android version 5.0
• iOS version 9

TRAIN User Tutorials
TRAIN Administrative Tutorials
TRAIN Frequently Asked Questions

Additional Training Resources

The following are public health, medical, and emergency management training resources that may be helpful to other state and local partners.

• FEMA Emergency Management Institute 
• FEMA Independent Study Training
• International Mass Fatalities Center
• Jurisdictional Risk Assessment 
• National Domestic Preparedness Consortium
• Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium
• National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Training 
• Texas A&M Engineering and Extension Services (TEEX) 
• Texas Emergency Management Preparedness (Preparing Texas)

Exercises help build preparedness for threats and hazards by providing a low-risk, cost-effective environment to identify resource requirements, capability gaps, strengths, areas for improvement, and potential best practices. Exercises build preparedness by examining plans, policies, and procedures, validating training, and supporting inter-agency coordination.

The CHEPR Exercise Team supports the State Medical Operations Center (SMOC) and Regional Health and Medical Operations Centers (RHMOCs) in designing, developing, conducting, and evaluating state and regional preparedness exercises, and creating SMOC After Action Reports for real-world incidents. The Exercise Team coordinates with HHS and public health stakeholders for public health components of multiagency exercises and provides limited consultative assistance to support local exercises.

Exercise training is available through the FEMA Independent Study program.

• IS-120c An Introduction to Exercises
• IS-130a How to be an Exercise Evaluator 

FEMA Preparedness Toolkit, www.preptoolkit.fema.gov, provides a plethora of guidance, templates, tools, and even prepared tabletop exercises.

• Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) Guidance
• HSEEP After Action Report and Improvement Plan Template
• HSEEP Integrated Preparedness Plan

Exercise design, planning, and/or evaluation assistance can be requested by contacting the DSHS Public Health Region that services your jurisdiction.

For additional exercise-related information or questions, please email PreparednessExercise@DSHS.Texas.gov.