Nurses play a very crucial role in all stages of disaster management. During response and recovery nurses are tasked with the roles of assessing the impact of the disasters on essential public services such as the provision of food and water, sanitation, and electricity, administering first aid and medicines to affected people, evacuating and treating patients, managing incident command centers and shelters as well as managing staff and volunteers (Stair & American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 2013). Other roles include communicating with the public, screening survivors for behavioral health and psychosocial needs, referring patients to mental health services if need be and helping survivors access relevant resources to promote recovery.
Type of Disaster
The type of disaster discussed is manmade resulting from a terror attack on the World Trade Centre. The terror attack intended to bring down the North Tower which would then collapse onto the South Tower killing occupants (Nicholson, 2015). An explosive by a terrorist on the building resulted in huge amounts of smoke causing breathing problems on the occupants and damaging property and infrastructure.
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Characteristics of the Disaster
Since most terror attacks are not fully predictable, nurses work towards ensuring that mitigation strategies put in place by relevant authorities are implemented. This is achieved through proper emergency plans, preparedness, and public education. The other characteristic of the disaster is that it was of high imminence since the impact of the explosion is not known to the rescuers (Nies & McEwen, 2019). The speed at which victims are exposed to danger is huge and hence the need for speedy and accurate response. Nurses ensure that victims receive speedy medical care and play a role in preventing further spread of hazards. Education and awareness programs run by nurses and other medical practitioners ensure that terror attacks are mitigated hence reducing the frequency of such events and their impact on humans and property. In this incident, for example, most people obtained external injuries from the falling building as well as breathing problems resulting from the smoke produced by the explosive. The intensity depends on the scope and determines the number of causalities and the value of property destroyed (Nies & McEwen, 2019). Nurses ensure that the intensity of such an event is reduced by offering rapid response and recovery services.
Application of Disaster Management Stages
Prevention of terror attacks usually entails different key players in government and the private sector. At the prevention stage, nurses ensure that communities are well educated on terror risks and strategies used by terrorists as well as some of the measures to take to mitigate the risk such as reporting any unusual events within the community.
Preparedness and planning are long term processes in disaster management. Nurses educate staff on disaster management and conduct drills for awareness, assess the risks likely to face a community and develop relevant disaster and emergency plans which are crucial in formulating planning initiatives at different levels of the government.
Response and recovery stages ensure that lives and property are saved and that the situation at hand is handled in the best way possible to prevent further damage. Some of their roles at these stages include safely rescuing victims, carrying out necessary first aid procedures, administering medicine, connecting them to relevant medical facilities and providing psychosocial services to affected people and their families (Nies & McEwen, 2019). During the attack at The World Trade Center, for example, nurses resuscitated victims and ensured that medical facilities such as ambulances were availed for use by causalities
Conclusion
Nurses play a crucial role in all disaster management processes including assessing risk, determining the extent of damage and taking the necessary steps to save lives and property ( Katz & Banaski, 2019) . Their roles are spread out across all stages of disaster management including mitigating risks through education to the public, preparing for disaster through the implementation of proper strategies and systems, and saving lives and property during rescue and recovery. Clearly defining their roles and coming up with policies that encourage inclusiveness that all stakeholders work together to address disasters.
References
Katz, R., &Banaski, J. A. (2019). Essentials of public health preparedness and emergency
management .
Nicholson, W. (2015). Emergency response and emergency management law: Cases and
materials. Springfield: Charles C Thom
Nies, M. A., & McEwen, M. (2019). Community/public health nursing: Promoting the health of populations.
Stair, R., & American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. (2013). Law enforcement responder: Principles of emergency medicine, rescue, and force protection. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
