Incident free essay sample

In the Disaster in Franklin County simulation (Regents of the University of Minnesota [UMN], 2006), there were several key personnel in the incident command team. This concept is utilized in real disasters when the Public Health Director is responsible for collaborating with the other key personnel from the community. Some of these people are the Fire Chief, Police Chief and EMS Director who collectively provide a summary of potential public health concerns resulting from the disaster. Often the issues that need to be addressed are obtainment of necessary supplies, potential evacuation plans, management of power outages and hazardous spills, activation of emergency personnel and communication to the public. The Public Health Director will establish the Incident Command Center and assign responsibilities to the various sections. The Public Health Nurse is usually part of a multi-disciplinary team that is deployed to check on residents after a disaster and/or staff the temporary shelters. In the Disaster in Franklin County simulation, the nurse is deployed to go door to door to assess the needs of the residents. The primary function at this time is to triage the victims and evacuate or obtain additional resources based on the specific needs. The nurse also is heavily involved in communication and education about the state of recovery and safety protocols that should be initiated. Chain of Command Chain of Command, as defined by The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is â€Å"an orderly line of authority within the ranks of the incident management organization† (ICS Intro, n. . , Lesson 2). The Incident Commander defines the incident action plan and assigns the roles of the incident response team (ICS, 2010). The Public Information Officer makes sure that accurate information is communicated to the public and involved agencies. The Planning Chief gathers, analyzes and disseminates information to everyone. He or she is preparing for what else can occur. The Logistics Section Chief is responsible for obtaining equipment, supplies and space needed to carry out the actions of the team. The Liaison Officer is the contact person for supporting agencies and relays information and provides briefings when indicated. The Operations Section Chief organizes, assigns and oversees the team members. The Finance / Administration Chief ensures that all financial processes are correct and monitors resources that have been used (Regents of the University of Minnesota [UMN], 2006). Resources The community health nurse often covers large areas in a disaster and will need to be able to direct citizens to various areas based on their needs. The ability to identify available resources will be invaluable to these nurses as well as the victims. Safety and shelter are some of the most important issues that these nurses will need to address. The strength of a qualified community health nurse comes from knowing the resources available to them to address situations that are out of their scope of practice. Environmental Health Specialists, Social Services, Public Health Director, and Center for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) are agencies that are often consulted. One example of this utilization is a pre-printed informational pamphlet on various topics in several languages that nurses can distribute. During times of stress, victims have so many problems which they are dealing with that it is often hard to concentrate and process all information that they hear. Having this information in written format gives them something to refer back to after the nurse is gone. Other resources are key people in the Public Health Departments to assist with problems such as hazardous pills, grief counseling, evacuation to relief shelters and higher level medical treatment. Actions of Community Health Nurse One of the most critical roles of a Community Health Nurse is to assess the urgent health issues and availability of food, water and necessary medical supplies. Once these immediate health concerns are assessed, the nurse will evaluate the entire situation and their expanded needs. Assistance with this will require the nurse to know the various resources ava ilable in the area and how best to utilize them. In one scenario in the Disaster in Franklin County, a resident inquires about a hazardous spill in their shed. The nurse has pamphlets from organizations like the CDC in several languages that can be distributed for guidance until an Environment Health Specialist can be deployed. The nurse leaves this written information with the victim and makes contact with the appropriate department for further evaluation. The female in the second household appears to be under a great deal of stress because of the additional challenges taking care of a baby and mother in law in this situation. The nurse listens compassionately and then educates the resident on the possibility of relocating to a shelter which can offer supplies and additional support. The nurse also contacts social services to assist the family and arranges for someone to visit the household. The third household had residents that were non-English speaking and the nurse had difficulty communicating with them in their native language. The ability to furnish the resident with pamphlets in their native language allowed the nurse to deliver the basic safety instructions and then arrange to have someone follow up with them that was fluent in their native language. The fourth household that was discussed in the simulation had the potential for a medical emergency because of the inability for the resident to obtain medication for hypertension. The nurse realized that this must be addressed and arranged relocation to a shelter. This shelter supplied the necessary medication as well as medical supervision as needed. Coping With Aftermath Problems resulting from disasters linger for quite some time after the acute phase in a disaster and victims may have issues arise that they were not aware of initially. Community health nurses are often a primary point of contact for many of these situations and must be prepared for various problems. Sometimes, they are called on to simply reassure the victim that they are not alone in the situation and that help will continue to come. When a nurse allows a victim to discuss their concerns, the nurse can quickly expedite referrals to the appropriate area if it is out of their scope of practice. Occasionally, just having the validation and reassurance from a professional instills hope that things will get better soon. In the situation where the caller stated that her husband was angry and her child was drawing disturbing pictures of the storm, the nurse first made sure that the caller was not in any danger. After that, reassurance was given and a referral was made to a more qualified provider for counseling. When another caller identified the problems with mold in the basement, the nurse validated that this sounded serious and informed the victim that appropriate environmental specialist would be contacted immediately to come and evaluate the problem. In addition to validating the potential seriousness of the problem, the nurse knew the area to contact for assistance and handled this for the victim. The nurse quickly identified the importance of the call from the father of the child with the burns on her hands from picking up a ball from a ditch and called 911 immediately. The nurse’s medical training and critical thinking skills guided this decision to prevent potential harm from occurring to others in the area. By notifying 911, the area would be secured quickly and the other departments would be called in as indicated. Throughout all of this, the community nurse functions as the center of a wheel to receive and distribute key information. Techniques In stressful situations people in authority or key positions have the ability to agitate or soothe those that have been affected. The most important thing that the nurse must do is listen intently to what the victim is saying. This is the only way that they can assess the safety of the victim and understand the entire situation. If the nurse feels that safety is an issue, he or she must immediately contact the appropriate department while remaining calm and supportive. The nurse must be able to empathize with what the victim is going through and reassure them that they are not alone. The nurse involved each of the residents in the decision making related to their situation. By clearly stating the various options and discussing the benefits of each, the nurse assisted in giving them some sense of control back into their life. Professionalism is another trait that the nurse must portray, especially as it relates to various departments or agencies. Disasters cause an enormous amount of additional work and stress to systems and consequently may result in slower process times. Instead of criticizing these departments for the timeliness of resolutions, the nurse should maintain accurate updates and communicate this to the victims while reassuring them. If the nurse does not have information that is requested, he or she should either facilitate the victim getting to the appropriate area or research it and follow up with the victim. Preparation of Nurses Reports from ineffective emergency responses indicate that poor responses primarily result from inadequate management (ICS Intro, n. d. ). Effective emergency response and management begins with extensive planning and training involving multiple agencies in a community. This planning and training is ongoing and is updated based on the size of the community, resources available and potential threats to the area. Community nurses will be responsible for treating victims in a holistic manner. In the position paper â€Å"The Role of Public Health Nurses in Emergency Preparedness and Response† (The Association of State and Territorial Directors of Nursing [ASTDN], 2007, p. 5-8), several competencies related to emergency preparedness are discussed. Community health nurses must be well informed of their agency’s role and expectation, be able to describe the chain of command and supervision during an emergency response situation, be knowledgeable of the emergency response plan, know their functional roles and how to execute them, correctly demonstrate required skills and use of required equipment, understand their communication role, identify key resources for situations outside their expertise, recognize and triage deviations that may indicate potential problems and participate in continuing education and evaluating drills. Preventing, preparing, responding and recovering from any type of disaster is more important now, than ever before, for anyone in the healthcare profession. Because of this, nurses may serve as first responders and function in various roles collaborating with other emergency workers to protect the safety and health of communities. References Intro to Incident Command Sysstem. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://emilms. fema. gov/IS100b/ICS01summary. tm Introduction to the Incident Command System (ICS 100) for healthcare/hospitals. (2010). Retrieved May 5, 2013, from http://www. training. fema. gov Regents of the University of Minnesota (Producer). (2006). Disaster in Franklin County. Retrieved from http://www. sph. umn. edu/details/course/7594/ The Association of State and Territorial Directors of Nursing. (2007). The role of public health nurses in emergency preparedness and response. Retrieved from http://www. phnurse. org