Primary recovery goal and steps for reaching the goal - Assignment Example

 Primary recovery goal and steps for reaching the goal Wayne is a public health nurse who resides in South Texas. His community suffered from wildfires that devastated the area and as a resident in the area, he was invited to assist in triaging and helping the victims, most of whom was his family, friends, or work colleagues. Wayne’s primary recovery goal is “identification of unmet needs” of the hospitalized group, and even those whose condition does not appear to be critical (Smith, 2012, p. 15). The recovery goal is important because the disaster has diverse possible implications such as physical injuries that are observable, and psychological injuries that may not be visible but may suppress victims’ reactions to their injuries.

Consequently, some of those who may have been left at home, on perception that they were not in critical conditions may be in worse conditions that the people who have been taken to the hospital. Triage initiative would therefore develop an understanding to adequate measure for effective recovery of every member of the society (Hunges and Maurer, 2012, p. 562).Wayne would follow the four steps of START triage for the hospitalized victims and the last stage of START triage for those who have been left at home.

In the first step in the hospital, he would call upon patients to move to a specific location with the aim of distinguishing those who can move and those who cannot move due to critical injuries. Focus would then shift to those patients who cannot move and he would examine breathing rate and tag those with very low breathing rates or very high breathing rates as emergency cases. Examination of radial pulse for the emergency cases would then follow and those without radial pulse identified as critical.

He would then subject non-critical patients, in hospital, to neurological test, and then conduct the test on patients who were not taken to the hospital (American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 2013, p. 1398). This would identify all victims by their needs and help in recovery of all of them. Victims who are more likely to need crisis intervention.People whose positions or actions put in danger or whose actions endanger others are the ones likely to require crisis intervention (Government of Victoria, 2010, p. 42, 43). This is because recovery initiatives aim at managing current conditions of patients and preventing further harm.

The category of patient is however likely to cause harm, and therefore delay recovery objective, and this establishes significance of focusing on their stability. Some major health concerns after a disaster that may affect the community and possible actions for improving the health concernsDisaster has many health concerns that the community may face. Wildfire increases risk of “asthma, emphysema, and cardiovascular diseases” among members of the society (Paul, 2011, n.p.). The disaster is also likely to worsen conditions of member of the community who already suffer from heart complications.

High incidence of cancer, due to carcinogen in smoke, stress, and mental complications are also likely.Wayne can organize for counseling sessions on stress management and ways of reducing further exposure to toxins from the wildfires. This will help in elevating depression and mental illnesses and in reducing risk of the terminal diseases. ReferencesAmerican Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. (2013). Incident management. In American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. (2013). Emergency care and transportation of the sick and injured. (p. 1398).

Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Government of Victoria. (2010). Statewide mental health triage scale, guidelines. Government of Victoria. (p. 42, 43). Retrieved from: http://www.health.vic.gov.au/mentalhealth/triage/triage-guidelines-0510.pdf. Hunges, C. and Maurer, F. (2012). Disaster management: Caring for communities in an emergency. In Maurer, F. and Smith, C. (2012). Community/public health nursing practice: Health for families and populations. (p. 562). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Health Sciences.Paul, B. (2011).

Disaster effects and impacts. In Paul, B. (2011). Environmental hazards and disasters: Contexts, perspectives and management. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Smith, C. (2012). Responsibilities for care in community/public health nursing. In Maurer, F. and Smith, C. (2012). Community/public health nursing practice: Health for families and populations. (p. 15). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Health Sciences.