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?
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,
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.
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
Bissell, R. (2010). Catastrophic Readiness and Response Course, Session 6 – Social and Economic Issues. Accessed at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/crr.asp
known as the bloodiest day in American history because there was one casualty every 2 seconds
An emergency is any event that could affect the safety of patients, staff, and visitors, or the hospital environment, or negatively affect the hospital’s ability to provide services to the community. The Responsibilities and Roles of Personnel In many ways, the responsibility of risk management belongs to everyone from senior leadership to the employees. A culture of safety should begin anew with every shift, regardless of the job description and for those delivering direct care, with every patient.
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.
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Public Use File, 2006, 01/01/2006 - 12/31/2006. Retrieved October 2013, from http://research.archives.gov/description/4734834
Communities must come together in order to be aware of the steps that must be taken to reduce or prevent risk. “The guidance, programs, processes, and systems that support each component of the National Preparedness System enable a collaborative, whole community approach to national preparedness that engages individuals, families, communities, private and nonprofit sectors, faith based organizations and all levels of government.” (FEMA, 2011). Resources within a community are prioritized and customized based on community-based issues and local security programs. The resources used as the front line of defense are first responders, such as police officers, firefighters and medical personnel. The resources are provided and prioritized based on the priority of threat and risks to a specific community. Therefore, the threats and risks targeted towards a community must be analyzed and acknowledged in order to apply the correct resources to the opposing prioritized threats. Disasters and emergencies typically begin at the local level and eventually require resources from state and federal
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.
Vulnerable groups are individuals who require special attention before, during and after natural disasters occur. They include women, children, prisoners, the elderly and persons with disabilities. In the event of sudden natural disasters like earthquakes and storms, very few strategies can be implemented. In the unforeseen instances of these disasters, vulnerable people run the risk of ultimately having disastrous consequences if adequate preparations are not made.
Their role is to ensure that those who help in the recovery are trained to respond to any such disaster.
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.
Pennsylvania Small Business Development Center. (n.d.). Emergency Response Planning: Disaster Preparedness for Small Businesses | pasbdc.org . Retrieved June 3, 2010,
...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.