Nursing Disaster Preparedness - Essay Example

"Nursing Disaster Preparedness" is a worthy example of a paper on poisoning, toxicology, and environmental health.
Disasters are always scary and are hard to prepare for. In this regard, the nurses are being assisted by the American Nurses Association (ANA) in order to meet the disaster and respond according to the situation. The ANA helps in preparing the nurses not only personally but also professionally. Hence, it is important for the nurses to have a proper disaster plan for their families, workplaces and the communities. The occurrence of disaster is unpredictable and hence recovering from and preparing for the disaster are the major priorities for every individual (Brewer, 2010).

Nursing Preparations At Home

During a disaster, the responsibility of the nurses increases considerably and therefore disaster planning is required. The nurses have to make sure that their family is safe and in a safe place while performing their task. The nurses are provided with childcare facility and have household back up prepared for the disaster. In this context, I always have a “go bag” ready in order to face the disaster. The bag contains food items and medical first aid that are required during the time of disaster to safeguard the family. Moreover, I have registered under a program of American Red Cross, where I during the time of disaster will be given an opportunity to communicate and monitor the safety of my family. These protections will allow me to perform by duty responsibly as I have secured and prepared my family from the disaster. The partnership of ANA with several government and non-government organisations have helped me in responding to the situation with confidence and assisted me in ensuring the health of the people (Brewer, 2010).

Role in the Disaster Response Plan in the Workplace

Registered nurses (RN) are one of the vital responders during the disaster in order to meet the safety and wellbeing of the people. RN during disasters is asked to volunteer and is provided with duties in the areas of disaster. RN is made to follow the disaster management cycle which includes mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery. RN has the legal and ethical responsibility to provide care during an emergency. Similarly, the employer is liable to take care of the health of the people by providing them with proper resources. Nurses offer special skills and formulate plans in order to serve the people. Correspondingly, the key role is to provide the people relief from pain, treat them by consoling and providing a human touch. They are responsible for proper surveillance along with executing proper prevention. RN provides first aid, psychological support, infection control measures and also monitors to restrict the disease from spreading. Nurses plan to formulate refugee camps for the treatment during a disaster. Moreover, the RN educates the community and offers immunization to the people to reduce the panic situation (Association of Public Health Nurses, 2007).

Challenges Regarding Community-Wide Disaster

The challenges faced by the nurses are major when the need exceeds the resources. The biggest challenge during the community-wide disaster for the nurses is to prepare for the disaster and provide help to their family. The challenge is to take care of their own health and safeguard the community. The plan can be to provide prevention to the community. The knowledge concerning epidemiology along with assessing community skill by the nurses acts as a vital response during the community-wide hazards. Educating the people regarding health and public safety facilitates to improve the possibility of being able to respond to a community-wide disaster (Association of Public Health Nurses, 2007).