Innovation and Strategic Planning
Introduction:
The purpose of the Assignment is to review events and key decisions that take place during a catastrophic weather emergency. It is also important to identify barriers and potential problems that could affect mounting an effective response. Nurses play an important role in disaster response as integral members of the multidisciplinary team to direct a collaborative community response to an impending or actual disaster.
To prepare for a disaster, your community must ensure that its members are ready to get through it safely, respond to it, and recover from it effectively. As a community leader in health care, the public health nurse needs to participate in developing a plan for contingencies. The nurse considers what must occur to keep the community safe if essential services break down. An organization should exercise the plan well before a disaster threatens. The public health nurse must collaborate with community leaders and health care systems to respond effectively.
As you consider your community, identify the challenges that can potentially affect the health and safety of community members in the event of a disaster. If a catastrophic event occurs, such as a Category 5 hurricane, the health and safety of aggregates in your community will be threatened and resources will be challenged. Note that a Category 5 hurricane results in the following:
- Casualties
- Fatalities
- Hospitalizations
- Infrastructure damage, including:
- Buildings destroyed, large amounts of debris on streets and transit ways
- Homes and businesses destroyed
- Evacuations/displaced persons
You will apply your knowledge of your community to identify strategies for a coordinated community response to a catastrophic event. You will support each strategy with evidence-based rationale. Cite your sources.
Using the form provided, identify how you, the public health nurse, will engage in efforts to keep your community safe. You will use the FEMA stages of disaster management. The phases are Prepare and Protect, Respond, Recover and Mitigate. Consider the following as you identify strategies necessary to optimize community safety during each phase of the disaster.
- Availability of facilities and employees
- Scope of practice of the public health nurse
- Confirm and check evacuation routes
- Availability of supplies and first aid
- Emergency response teams
- Actual and potential community hazards
- Information management capabilities
- Strategies to expedite approval to practice
- Resources for care and shelter
- Strategies for maintaining order
- Preemptive strategies that enable a quicker community recovery