NURS 4011 Week 4 Assignment Paper

Assignment: Disaster Planning for Public Health

Select a potential natural or man-made disaster that could happen in your community. Then, write a 3- to 4-page paper about the disaster from the community nurse’s perspective.NURS 4011 Week 4 Assignment

Section 1: The Disaster, Man-Made or Natural

What disasters may strike your community and why? For example, do you live in “Tornado Alley,” or has climate change resulted in unusual cold weather snaps or blizzards in your community? Are you located in a flood plain? Include possible diseases that may result from a natural disaster, such as tetanus or cholera.

Section 2: The Nursing Response

Formulate responses to the disaster, considering systems and community levels of intervention.

Review websites where a disaster plan may be available for the public, or if one is not currently available, call public health department to see if a disaster plan exists for your community and what the plan contains.

In addition to reviewing websites for information about your local disaster plan, you will need to locate best practice/evidence-based practice guidelines in professional literature to determine whether your community’s disaster plan is as sound as it might be or if there is room for improvement.

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Section 3: Is My Community Prepared for a Disaster?

What conclusions can you draw about your community’s preparedness plan from having completed this evaluation?

For this Assignment, review the following:

AWE Checklist (Level 4000)

BSN Program Top Ten Citations and References

Walden paper template (no abstract or running head required)

The Week 5 Assignment Rubric.

Please go to my Walden page week 4 assignment.

Disaster Planning for Public Health

Natural or Man-Made Disaster

            A disaster is a calamitous event that happens suddenly disrupting society and community functioning. Disasters cause environmental, material, and human losses that supersede the ability of the society to overcome it using their own resources. According to Greer et al (2020), a natural disaster on the other hand is catastrophic event with hydrological, geological, or atmospheric causing property damage as well as fatalities.  Examples of natural disasters include hurricanes, landslides, tornados, droughts, earthquakes and floods. Man-made disasters on the other hand originate from human negligence, error or intent. War, arson, crime, cyber-attacks and terrorism are examples of man-made disasters.NURS 4011 Week 4 Assignment Paper

Moore Tornado, 2013

            Oklahoma is known to experience 60 tornadoes annually on weak and devastating constructions and over-populated areas. More than 80 percent of the tornadoes that occur in Oklahoma are less destructive. The common tornadoes in Oklahoma rarely cause deaths and also do not have cause major and noticeable damage.  The Moore tornado that happened in May20, 2013 was the largest tornado in the history of Oklahoma tornadoes (Hanley, Barrett & Lean, 2016). The tornado lasted for more than 40minutes tracking shocking pathway through Moore, Newcastle and Oklahoma City. The tornado caused massive damage to schools around. In addition, the Moore tornado destroyed more than 300 homes in the Oklahoma City. In addition, 24 deaths were caused by the tornado leaving several people badly injured.  The Moore tornado traveled more than14 miles through the heavily populated areas of Oklahoma spanning for a distance of more than 1.1 miles in width. The Oklahoma City was suffered economically since property worth 2 billion dollars was damaged by the tornado.

Nursing Response on the Moore Tornado, 2013

             After the Moore tornado incidence, the nurses rushed to the scene to rescue the patients who suffered injuries from the disaster. The nurses, doctors and public health officers treated the injured patients with lacerations. In addition, patients were picked from rubble and were treated all the skin irritations that were caused by insulation of the fiberglass that been had scattered by the effect of the tornado. All the asthmatic patients were given inhalers and the right medication because the tornado would cause asthma attacks due to the shock caused by the tornado (Hanley, Barrett & Lean, 2016). The diabetic and the hypertensive treatment were also put on medication since such an incidence would cause high blood sugars as well as high blood pressure. In addition, all the patients received tetanus shots since they were all exposed to sharps that came from the breakages of the building. The emergency department was filled up with patients and therefore some nurses had to extend their shifts to help the injured patients.

The nursing in charge at the hospital also coordinated all the workers at the hospital to notify them about the tragedy. The health workers who were off duty were requested to help their colleagues in treating the injured patients. In addition, the hospital was ready to accommodate patients since they ensured the bed capacity was enough for the expected patients. Since most patients had bruises and cuts, from debris the nurses at the emergency room used color-coded tags on each patients (Spialek, Czlapinski & Houston, 2016). The color-coded tags indicated the severity of the injury on each patient. As such, the hospital had set different rooms for different color codes for easy and faster treatment. The nurses also took the names of the patients who were treated in the hospital for easy tracing of families. Through the collected names, the nurses assisted the injured children to reunite with their guardians and parents. Patients who lost their homes were not discharged from the hospital directly but were given time to settle by the hospital.

 My Community Preparedness for the Disaster

            The magnitude of the Moore tornado was very high thus requiring several resources and more time to respond and recover from the damage caused. As such, the emergency department team at our community was well prepared and responded to the emergency on time (Greer et al, 2020). The emergency personnel and the hospital around was prepared on evacuation and saving of lives from the event. All the patients who got injuries from the event were fully treated at the hospital. In addition, the homeless victims were sheltered by the emergency department on time. The rescue team also removed the debris caused by the event to prevent further accidents and injuries.NURS 4011 Week 4 Assignment Paper

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            The critical infrastructure including transportation, utilities and water were handled in organized way and also distributed to all the victims fairly. Members of the society also donated food, clothing and money to the victims. The hospital was also provided with a generator to serve all the activities since the tornado had caused power outrage (Spialek, Czlapinski & Houston, 2016). The private and public institutions also responded to the tornado and agreed on coordination to help out the affected people. The activity to save the affected individuals by the tornado from the community was outpouring and attracted a lot of attention across borders. The non-profit organization s and churches also supported the affected individuals in a great way through donations. Eventually, the community authority formed a donation management team to foresee the donations offered since they were overwhelming.

References

Greer, A., Binder, S. B., Thiel, A., Jamali, M., & Nejat, A. (2020). Place attachment in disaster    studies: measurement and the case of the 2013 Moore tornado. Population and        Environment, 41(3), 306-329.

Hanley, K. E., Barrett, A. I., & Lean, H. W. (2016). Simulating the 20 May 2013 Moore, Oklahoma tornado with a 100‐metre grid‐length NWP model. Atmospheric Science     Letters, 17(8), 453-461.

Spialek, M. L., Czlapinski, H. M., & Houston, J. B. (2016). Disaster communication ecology and             community resilience perceptions following the 2013 central Illinois tornadoes.     International journal of disaster risk reduction, 17, 154-160. NURS 4011 Week 4 Assignment Paper