This event happened in September 4–October 10, 2017 and caused major harm to the local people and the community including the loss of lives. The Irma disaster could be defined as a directly hurricane-related accident that had devastating impacts to the community living in North Carolina. As expected, the hurricane involved the destruction of property and the environment. It also involved the destruction of homes and causing of injuries among the local communities at close proximity to the disaster.
Specifically, the disaster has a number of health impacts on the people and communities that lived in the area. The health impacts of the disaster include trauma on the people from the wind/rain-associated structural collapse, the falling structures, as well as, the debris that flew during storm. Secondly, there was also the asphyxiation of the people from rain and floods that were accompanied by the hurricane. Body injuries of the local people who inhabited the houses that collapsed during the disaster (Pasch, 2017). Other secondary health impacts of this disaster included the exacerbation of existing medical condition of the people caught in the hurricane. Health conditions caused by the disruption of emergency transportation services such as ambulances. Health issues caused by the disruption of needed medical amenities/facilities such as dialysis machines, oxygen containers, and refrigerated medications.
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Following the disaster, the needs of the local community include helping the families that were hit by trauma through counseling and care to regain their normal functioning. There is also need to provide physician care for the people who were injured through the collapse of the houses and building structures, as well as road accidents caused by the hurricane. This intervention would involve developing the medications for the same. In addition, there is also need for care and mental therapy for the people who were hit by stress and shock because of losing their family members in the hurricane (Pasch, 2017). Lastly, there is need to provide psychological support to the families that were hard hit by the hurricane in the process of their recovery.
In addressing the said needs, the nursing roles that would need to be undertaken include the role of providing care, administering medication, offering counsel, providing support, supervising treatment process, and doing follow-up on the treatment plan for the people who are under medication. The nurses have a role to play in terms of providing the necessary care for the patients admitted in hospitals after the hurricane event. Nurses are also primarily involved in following up with the administration of medication (Skolnik, 2015). This is in the sense that they would help the patients in the process of taking their medicine dosage. Nurses would also take on a major role of providing the social support in the process of care delivery. The focus of this task is to promote the right environment that would aid the healing process.
Conclusively, the emergency preparedness & response factors that would need to be addressed to minimize the impacts of future possible disasters include the following. First, there is need for create evacuation centers and homes where people would take refuge after the warning of the hurricanes are made public by the local meteorological officers. Secondly, there is need to create an emergency fund for the local community that would keep funds in readiness for potential disasters. Such an approach would make it easier to act in time when such occurs. Thirdly, there is need for increased awareness of the hurricane occurrence and research by the relevant authorities.
References
Pasch, R. (2017). Hurricane Irma Discussion. Miami, Florida: National Hurricane Center
Skolnik, R. (2015). Global Health 101. New York, NY: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
