Disasters are serious disruption of functioning society. It involves environmental resources, causing scarcity and mass destruction. Disaster can happen at any given time and place without warning. Being prepared is a key safeguard for people’s lives so that they’ll be able to take appropriate actions when facing imminent type of disaster. From the article “Mass casualty events Are you prepared?” by Janice S. Smith, she discussed disaster in mass casualty as well as nursing management during a disaster. According to the Smith (2010), “ Standing on the front lines of the healthcare system, nurses make up the largest portion of the healthcare work force and are often referred to as, first receivers, in the event of a disaster” (p.1).
A mass casualty event is a situation that stresses the health care system and local resources with overwhelming injuries and illness that require immediate attention and care. There are many different types of mass casualty event such as bioterrorism, chemical emergencies, radiation emergencies, and natural disaster (hurricane, earthquake, tsunamis, and tornados). As a nurse, being part of the healthcare team, you have a professional responsibility to the public and to yourself about being disaster prepared. This mean that you would need to understand and construct an effective disaster plan in order to care for the victim of mass casualty event and not worry about anything else in time of disaster.
Personal and family preparedness is a key to protect yourself and your family in the event that emergency strike, before, during, and after the event. The recommendations and guidelines of a complete disaster plan include the disaster kit unique to every family’s need and practice. According to FEMA.org, “...
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Brewer, K. (2010, June). American Nurses Association. Retrieved December 27, 2013, from http://nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/WorkplaceSafety/Healthy-Work-Environment/DPR/Disaster-Preparedness.pdf
Federal Emergency Management Agency. (n.d.). Retrieved December 27, 2013, from www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/7877
Mass casualty event - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2013, July 10). Retrieved December 27, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_casualty_event
Veenema, T.G. (2013). Disaster nursing and emergency preparedness for chemical biological and radiological terrorism and other hazards (3rd ed.). New York: Springer Pub. Co.
Smith, J. S. (2010, April). Mass casualty events Are you prepared?
Emergency responders face the prospect of responding to a disaster occurring at any time or any location within their jurisdiction. Local agencies are responsible to properly prepare for, mitigate and respond to both man-made and natural disasters. Emergency responders and their agencies should follow the guidelines of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) in order to be best prepared for response to the next disaster whether natural or man-made.
Plans were in place on how to handle a natural disaster “A 54 year old nursing director was the “rotating emergency-incident commander designated for Katrina and was in charge, also a woman by the name of Mulderick the chairwoman of the hospital’s emergency-preparedness committee helped draft Memorial’s emergency plans,
Schmidt, C. K., Davis, J. M., Sanders, J. L., Chapman, L. A., Cisco, M. C., and Hady, A. R. (2011). Exploring Nursing Students’ Level of Preparedness for Disaster Response. Nursing Education Perspectives, 32(6), 380-383. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp-02.lirn.net/docview/920892622/fulltextPDF/F759D54F8924633PQ/1?accountid=158614
Aehlert, Barbara. "Disaster Response and Domestic Preparedness." Paramedic practice today: above and beyond. Rev. ed. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby, 2011. . Print.
The goals include increasing nurses’ awareness of their roles and responsibilities in preparing for and responding to a disaster. There are web-based courses available for professionals who are not necessarily planning to deploy to a disaster site but working in hospitals, schools or long-term care settings. These individuals could help with the long-range planning of patients involved in a disaster. The course is designed to protect the nurse and the public through the use of universal precautions, protective equipment, evidence collection and isolation precautions. These are areas that the emergency nurse may not consider when volunteering on the front line of a disaster (Stokowski, 2012). Other areas of the course include how to prepare for a disaster, who to notify when an event is unfolding, the assessment, diagnosing and treating of injuries and illnesses, incorporating clinical judgment skills, and supporting the community after the disaster (Orr,
Throughout this assignment I will be explaining Major Incidents (MI), the causes of those Major Incidents, the effects and impacts of Major Incidents and who is involved. To aid my explanation of Major Incidents I will be adding a few examples.
However, they only briefly present issues that directly affect the populace in-terms of economic and social impact. The literature fails to take into account how underprepared many citizens are equipped to deal with a natural or technological hazard. In recent years, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has continued to push the concept of being prepared for a 72 hour emergency. The question is the populous prepared to a catastrophic emergency? If not, is this being accounted for in the risk
Having a basic understanding of community or national emergency plans can assist families in disaster. This is especially true during the response phase. The National Response Framework (NRF) is a great example of a national community reference. According to FEMA’s publication, “The National Response Framework,” from 2013, the NRF is a guide which describes the basis of national response to any form of disaster. The NRF was developed from a long line of response guidance plans. The first was the Federal Response plan which was replaced by the National Response Plan. Then in 2008, the NRF was developed to make national response guidance more efficient as well as to include practices created after Hurricane Katrina. The NRF is comprised of 4 sections. These are the foundation document, the Emergency Support Functions (ESF) Annexes, the Support Annexes, and the Incident Annexes. These annexes describe how the NRF can be implemented. It is important to note that the NRF and the National Incident Management System (NIMS) are meant to work in conjunction with each other, while NIMS and its component the Incident Command System (ICS) supply the NRF with an incident management function (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2013c, pp. 2-3). The NRF is based on several guiding principles. These are engaged partnership, tiered response, scalable operations, unity of effort/unified command, and readiness to act (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2013c, pp. 5-6).
The Calgary Flood of 2013 forced over 100 000 people out of their homes, caused the death of three people, and caused six billion dollars in damage. Numerous buildings had no electricity, roads were shut down, and residents were asked to limit their use of water. The Alberta Government states that it will take many years to repair all the damage and have everything to return back to its normal state (CBC News, 2013). Most of the recommendations that were made after the flood in 2005 were never acted on, leaving Calgary ill prepared for the 2013 flood (Paperny, 2013). Emergency management is a framework that emcompasses procedures to effectively deal with natural and human disasters (Stanhope, Lancaster, Jessup-Falcioni, & Viverais-Dresler, 2011). The initiatives in the framework illustrate the four stages of disaster management in Canada: prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Natural disasters, namely the 2013 Calgary Flood, impact the community as a whole, and incline nurses to apply expertise skills while utilizing all resources available to initiate the disaster management framework of prevention and mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery (Stanhope et al., 2011).
Both man-made and natural disasters are often devastating, resource draining and disruptive. Having a basic plan ready for these types of disaster events is key to the success of executing and implementing, as well as assessing the aftermath. There are many different ways to create an emergency operations plan (EOP) to encompass a natural and/or man-made disaster, including following the six stage planning process, collection of information, and identification of threats and hazards. The most important aspect of the US emergency management system in preparing for, mitigating, and responding to man-made and natural disasters is the creation, implementation and assessment of a community’s EOP.
A disaster is one of the biggest challenges that tests the organizational structure of an urgent care clinic. Given that in disaster situations we are under an abnormal condition characterized by confusion, urgency and often danger, it implies planning in advance the care clinic response, in order to minimize the danger of possible damage to the integrity of patients and the security of the building. The internal and external disasters reduce the attention capacity of the institutions [4]. The daily clinical activities are altered and it is of vital importance for the success of the task of facing disasters of different magnitude, to have in advance all the human, physical and technological resources that this deserves.
Their role is to ensure that those who help in the recovery are trained to respond to any such disaster.
Hazards pose risk to everyone. Our acceptance of the risks associated with hazards dictates where and how we live. As humans, we accept a certain amount of risk when choosing to live our daily lives. From time to time, a hazard becomes an emergent situation. Tornadoes in the Midwest, hurricanes along the Gulf Coast or earthquakes in California are all hazards that residents in those regions accept and live with. This paper will examine one hazard that caused a disaster requiring a response from emergency management personnel. Specifically, the hazard more closely examined here is an earthquake. With the recent twenty year anniversary covered by many media outlets, the January 17, 1994, Northridge, California earthquake to date is the most expensive earthquake in American history.
...ral disaster safety and relief efforts. Today, many organization have been created to aid the victims in areas that have been pounded by hurricanes and other nasty natural disasters like the Red Cross Association and UNICEF. Both groups collect funds for, distribute supplies to, and send out volunteers to the broken areas pleading for someone to rescue them from tragedies. Thanks to organizations that are apart of relief efforts many lives have been spared and cities have been rebuilt. As far as safety precautions, weather and news channels provide constant coverage and warnings for any storms that are within the area, houses are built to within severe weather, and disaster kits are even sold in stores all across the nation. It is important that we take these storms seriously and make an honest effort to keep not only the citizens safe but our environment as well.
A disaster is not a simple emergency. A disaster is that point when a human is suffering and has a devastating situation which they themselves need help from others to survive. Regardless if natural or human caused, a disaster causes a vast amount of issues in the community. In the simulation of “Disaster in Franklin County reveals that preparation is key and even with that more can be addressed. A community nurse remains an essential part of the team involved in a disaster including before, during, and after the event.