"A disaster is any natural or human-made incident that causes disruption, destruction, or devastation requiring external assistance" (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2014, p. 248). Disasters can range from a house fire that affects one family to a bioterrorism act that involves thousands of people. Natural disasters have increased in the United States due to urbanization and overcrowding of cities."Projections suggest that by 2050, at least 46% of the world 's population will leave in areas vulnerable to natural floods, earthquakes, and severe storms" (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2014, p. 249). Some examples of natural disasters are tornados, hurricanes, and blizzards. Additionally, human-made disasters have increased from the stressors of being overcrowded. …show more content…
Preparedness, response, and recovery are three stages of disaster management. "Nurses have skills that enable them to work in all aspects of disasters, such as assessment, priority sitting, collaboration, health education, disease screening, and mass clinic management" (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2014, pp. 250-251). Nurses play very important roles in the different stages of disaster management. The Preparedness Podcast describes the phase of preparedness as making plans and having the needed equipment and supplies to save lives during and after a disaster event (www.thepreparednesspodcast.com). Everyone needs to be prepared for fear that a disaster can strike at anytime. FEMA has devised a four step plan on how to prepare for safety if a disaster occurs. The four steps include the following in order: learn how to obtain information during the disaster or emergency, make a disaster plan, complete the checklist and be sure to place in a location everyone can find easily, and practice the plan at least every 6 months. A number of emergency supplies need to be stored in container that can be carried easily. Various items include: 3 day water supply and food that will not spoil, change of clothes, first aid kit, …show more content…
The recovery phase deals with people returning back to their lives and making it as normal as possible. This is usually the most difficult part since it will not ever be exactly like it was before the disaster. The communities are rebuilt and organizations are restored by the best of everyone 's ability during this phase. Flexibility is vital in helping disaster victims. Nurses can make sure immunizations are up to date and continue to educate about hygiene due to increase risk of diseases. One responsibility of a nurse is community assessments. The nurse can monitor for health hazards while doing home visits. "Nurses play a key role in helping survivors by providing psychological support" (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2014, p. 263). Mental health referrals need to be made for those in need. Case findings and referrals are crucial roles for the nurse during the recovery
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
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,
The major preparedness measures taken include strategic planning for disaster, making changes in procurement procedures, developing a communication plan, and investigating insurance coverage.
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).
Pre impact conditions mixed with event specific conditions combined with one another during a disaster produce physical and social impacts to a community. The impact from each disaster can be reduced by interventions through emergency management. By assessing these pre impact conditions, an emergency manager can produce social risks and vulnerabilities within their community. Integrating these social risks and vulnerabilities emergency mangers can use the four most important phases in emergency management: preparedness, planning, response, and recovery to benefit their community as a whole.
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.
The National response plan outlines four key actions the disaster coordinator should take. They are gaining and maintaining situational awareness, activate and deploy key resources and capabilities, coordinating response actions and demobilizing. Throughout the response it is essential that responders have access to critical information. During the initial response effort the situation is will change rapidly. Situational awareness starts at the incident site. For this reason it is essential that decision makers have access to the right information at the right time. By establishing an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) all key responders are brought ...
A hurricane is considered a disaster. To be specific it is a natural disaster. So we all searched, "How a hospital prepares for a natural disaster". Bingo, we found numerous resources concerning hospitals and how they prepare for these types of incidents. The fist article was titled, "Hospital Disaster Preparedness: Meeting a Requirement or Preparing for the Worst?"(Paul V. Richter [PVR], 1997). This article explained in detail a hospital plan for disaster in West Columbia, SC. The article was written as a basic manual for all hospitals to follow. It was submitted to South Carolina Hospital Association as a guide. Many things are explained in this article. It explained in detail how the different departments within a medical facility should handle disastrous situations.
Their role is to ensure that those who help in the recovery are trained to respond to any such disaster.
Approximately 40% of the training that I received to perform disaster related resource linkage and crisis counseling to flood survivors applied on the job. Having knowledgeable trainers carry out the training proved to be one of the greatest enablers in the transfer of training. Their experience with previous disasters helped them to amass a wealth knowledge about the program, along with understanding survivor emotions and reactions. Specifically, their ability to guide and provide real world examples to trainees about the six phases of a disaster was most helpful. Those phases include: (1) pre-disaster phase; feelings of vulnerability, fear, and guilt are high (2) impact phase; confusion, shock, and disbelief settle in (3) during the heroic phase, rescue behavior and a sense of altruism take
It is also written for a larger audience of non-Federal Government executives, private sector and nongovernmental organization (NGO) leaders, emergency managers, community development professionals and disaster recovery practitioners1 . Recovery begins with pre-disaster preparedness and includes a wide range of planning activities. The NDRF clarifies the roles and responsibilities for stakeholders in recovery, both pre- and post-disaster. It recognizes that recovery is a continuum and that there is opportunity within recovery. It also recognizes that when a disaster occurs, it impacts some segments of the population more than others. The ability of a community to accelerate the recovery process begins with its efforts in pre-disaster preparedness, mitigation and recovery capacity building. These efforts result in a resilient community with an improved ability to withstand, respond to and recover from disasters. Timely decisions in response to disaster impacts can significantly reduce recovery time and cost. The NDRF describes key principles and steps for community recovery planning and implementation. It promotes a process in which the impacted community fully engages and considers the needs of all its members. A key
Social work interventions in disasters have focused on the variety of ways that such events affect individuals, families, organizations and communities. Areas of concern have included traumatic stress, resources for disadvantaged and vulnerable populations and co-ordination of various intervention systems (Zakour, 1996).
Education of all personnel is key. Simulations like the Franklin County are great sources. Schools, hospitals, public and private companies to consider preforming drills or simulations in preparation for disasters such as. Many counties have such drills which sometime involve local hospitals, emergency personnel, and local high school students acting like victims with certain issues like head injury, burns, and other injuries which can occur. The television and radios do emergency testing which reminds watchers monthly the sound and the protocol that occurs in an emergency.
Natural Disasters can occur anywhere at anytime. Some are more predictable than others, but they all bring hardship to everyone’s life. Examples of natural disasters are Earthquakes (Haiti 2010), Tornadoes, Tsunami, Hurricanes, Wild Fires, Winter Storms, Heat waves, Mudslides and Floods. Regardless of what kind of disaster occurs, bottom line, everyone needs to be prepared mentally and physically to deal with the aftermath. Education is the first step to prepare you to deal with any major disaster. Three of the major disasters that can potentially disrupt normal day to day operations in our lives, are Hurricanes, Tsunamis and Tornadoes.
This lack of preparation takes place in different places and involves different hazards. In the case of hurricane, only half of all respondents living in Central Florida have hurricane evacuation plan in place (Kapucu, 2008). Another finding revealed that only 8 percent of all respondent have prepared a disaster supplies kit in home. Kenny (2009) found that most residents in South Florida, hurricane-prone area, failed to take preparatory measures such as securing bottled water and food when storms strike. In another place and a different hazard, the result of study demonstrated the same finding. Paton and Prior (2008) studied bushfire preparation in Tasmania show that most respondents had undertaken some form of protective behavior only minimal and limited. They started to prepare after they were warned by disaster emergency services.