According to the United Nations, disaster is a severe disruption of the typical community and societal functioning. Regarding disaster management, it is the organization and management of rescues and responsibilities for dealing with all aspects of the humanitarians’ emergencies. There are four phases of disaster management; prevention preparedness, response, and recovery. The government and healthcare practitioners, like nurses, play a critical role in managing the disaster.
The first stage is prevention, which entails the prevention of the possibility of a future disaster occurring or reducing their effects. During the phase, nurses can help in risk factor identification in the community so that they can warn people. Offering public education can improve awareness and ability to prevent the disaster among the population. Admission of vaccination for emergencies that are expected to cause health disruption is crucial in avoiding people. Prepended a focus on minimizing the impact of a disaster on life and property loss and destruction (Rivera-Rodriguez, 2017). Nurses can help in preventing the spread of the disease to those that are not affected, for instance, through isolation of the infected people. Additionally, they should facilitate the evacuation process to remove people from the region of disaster to safer places.
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Usually, the response comes after the occurrence of the disaster to help people who have been affected by the incident. The nursing role includes providing medical treatment to the injured personnel, providing victims with resources like food, and shelter, as well as removing them from the disaster. The final phase of the process is disaster recovery. It includes activities that aim at facilitating recovery for the affected during the emergency (Rivera-Rodriguez, 2017). Among the responsibilities of nurses during the disaster stage is providing long term care for the injured to help them recover. Additionally, they have the role of evaluating the incidence and establish areas that need improvement to ensure the wellbeing of the affected individuals.
California State Emergency Plan
The plan identifies the four phases of disaster management under the activities of emergency management. It elucidates the role and responsibility of stakeholders in all levels of the government regarding mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
The plan addresses the needs of the community. It discusses the managerial activities and duties that should be undertaken in case of a natural or human made disaster ( Brown & Ghilarducci , 2017). Besides, in the recovery stage of the management, the plan states that the government provides community assessment to ensure the understanding of long-term failure and their behavioral issues regarding the emergence. The program aims at a meeting addressing the current community needs and ensure the wellbeing of the affected people.
Besides illustrating the plan for disaster management, the program gives an idea of the warning system. It demonstrates the process right from FEMA until they reach the locals.
The plan states that the Documentation Unit facilitates the essential record retention of the management activities in the four disaster management phases. These records are preserved and protected for audit. Cost unit protects the cost recovery records and as well assist in obtaining any missing information.
Although the plan seems comprehensive in terms of dealing with every disaster management stage, it does not highlight the alternative strategies that the entities dealing with disaster management would apply case the plan fails.
The government work in collaboration with non-governmental organizations like the Red Cross and voluntary organization to ensure the availability of enough resources to help mass victims. The plan incorporate individuals with different capabilities to solve a wide range of disasters.
References
Brown E.G & Ghilarducci , M.S. (2017). State of California Emergency Plan. https://www.caloes.ca.gov/PlanningPreparednessSite/Documents/California_State_Emergency_Plan_2017.pdf
Rivera-Rodriguez, E. (2017). Role of the nurse during disaster preparedness: A systematic literature review and application to public health nurses.
