Volunteer Nurses Needed for Hurricane Emergency!

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Volunteer Nurses Needed for Hurricane Emergency!

We hope that you and your family have weathered the hurricane safely! Our thoughts and prayers are with you during this difficult time.

Many have not been as lucky as we have. The LA-OEP (Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness) is requesting healthcare volunteers. This includes ALL levels of nursing expertise. If you and your family are safe, please volunteer - there is a tremendous need for nurses. Call 225-389-2100 and ask for "Medical". They are expecting your call. If the line is busy, please keep calling.

Please pass this on to anyone you think may be of help. Thank you!

LSNA

Safe to say student nurses not able to assist?

NSNA (the student nursing assoc - I am not sure if the initials are correct - has sent out an email to member schools asking for assistance. I am sorry, but deleted the email w/ info and links and cannot retrieve it. Maybe someone else has rec'd it and can post it here.

I would suggest students work through their school, local Red Cross so assistance can be coordinated. Thinking even if we cannot go there, we can do something locally to free up others, hold drives for supplies and money, etc., etc. through our schools.

SJ

please know our prayers are with you . i am from az. and trying to figure out how to get there and help. you all are true heroes. god bless you.

we have almost 6000 homeless at the cajundome in lafayette. i am just arriving home from there. the buses arrived in droves to drop people off during the night. they are arriving in the clothes they had on when the hurricane hit. they have been swimming in the dirty water, are soiled with urine and feces, and sunburned. most had not eaten or drank in several days, much less taken there meds. (think: no psych drugs in addition to your normal diabetic and cv meds). they were picked up on i-10.

the buses that arrived at the cajundome last night had very sick people on it. they were dropped at the door. we had no nurse practitioner or md to triage. the red cross is there but is only a band-aid station i am told. cis had set up a clinic yesterday but it was closed when the buses started arriving during the night. some refugees were unable to walk off the bus. i was on the phone with a doctor who was helping me to triage. i want to thank dr. xxx for talking to me on the phone during those rough hours. also thanks to dr. xxx for responding to a panicked call from me to please come help (thanks to a umc nurse who put me in touch with these physicians). dr. xxx also arrived, more red cross staff (who apparently had been sleeping, i had no idea they where they were there, communication is strained due to this rapid influx of refugees.) the police and paramedics quickly responded once alerted to our situation. we knew there was a list of volunteers somewhere, but we couldn't find it. one lady was in active labor. one was having seizures. at least three had not had dialysis in a week, wheezing and sob. many had recently had surgery and had fresh surgical wounds, who had been in the water. we had one with 5 gunshot wounds (recieved before the hurricane), the sites were grossly infected, but he was stable. many needed the restroom but couldn't walk to the bathroom. we did not have enough wheelchairs or assistance to get them to a restroom. you can imagine the outcome. we sent busloads of acute ill (not enough ambulances) refugees to local ers. i believe some were also sent to another local shelter. we did not have blankets, pillows, or enough showers and clothes to help all these people.

god bless everyone affected by this tragedy and for the all the help that responded once they were alerted to our situation! i am praying that communication will improve among the many many volunteers who are there to help. our red cross has been wonderful, but i am afraid they are understandaby overwhelmed with the situation.

i know there are many other shelters around louisiana who are probably facing similar situations. we will get through this!!

please know our prayers are with you . i am from az. and trying to figure out how to get there and help. you all are true heroes. god bless you.

i just spoke w/ the louisiana emergency board, and asked for medical. she took my name and #, and my position. when i asked if they were accepting student nurses, she said they are accepting everything right now. she said someone should be calling back very soon, and in the meantime to contact the louisiana red cross at 225-763-5740 to coordinate. rc asked my position, and my specialty, and told me to expect a call back within 24-48hrs.

all the numbers listed before are correct, and they have confirmed they are looking for all types of any help. student nurses included.

Glascow... You are amazing :saint:. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your story with us. You and all the other HERO's are in our thoughts and prayers. Please stay safe and remember when this is all over... take care of you. This has to be so emotionally taxing (not to mention the physical aspect) and there will be post traumatic stress issues for so many ... volunteers and workers included!!! Please let us know what we can do for you... give us an addy... we'll find a way to get it to you. Relief trucks are leaving daily for that region... so you name it... we'll do what we can.

Wanda

I am a resident in lafayette louisiana and I am also a nursing student. I understand that all medical volunteers are desprately needed here but many have no place to stay. I would like to offer my spare room and/or sofa bed for any of you who are willing to help. We are in a state of emergency here and I am afraid that without adequate medical personnel many of these people will die in the days and weeks to come. I am sick to my stomach and overwhelmed with the desperation. I wish that I were already a nurse so that I wouldnt feel so completely helpess.

So, to any of you who wish to make the journey here where we need your help....please come. I welcome you with open arms.

God Bless!

I am in the process of putting together a medical team from the Kansas City area to aid in the medical relief effort, but information is hard to come by, and contacts in that area are even harder to make. All phone lines are busy or out. Any contact information would be greatly appreciated. We can fly into any area of need we just need to know who to contact and how, so plans can be made.

Feel free to contact me at via private messaging with any information

Thanks,

Dan

Hi Dan,

I am trying to get my finances in order because I am the only income here. If all works out, please let me know if you could use a RN with ER, OR, and Maternal Child (OB-PEDS) experience. I have contacted the Red Cross and they want volunteers that can stay 3 weeks +. I can afford that right now. Please contact me via private email if you have a moment. Thank you and God bless all those in need and those that are giving so much to help!

Luci

Canadian nurses cannot go to the States and practice without a license so I've been told. Disaster or no disaster. :rolleyes:

Z

deleted at request of mods

Canadian nurses cannot go to the States and practice without a license so I've been told. Disaster or no disaster. :rolleyes:

Z

I bet they may reconsider this once damage control is managed and they are better able to assess the needs in the U.S.

I bet they may reconsider this once damage control is managed and they are better able to assess the needs in the U.S.

Yes...i hope the USA will reconsider letting foreign nurses from Canada etc help out.

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

info you can use from ana:

how to protect yourself

while nurses have a primary commitment to the patient, we also have a responsibility to preserve our own safety so we can care for others. the following web links provides valuable information to help promote nurses' safe response to emergencies and disasters, especially those associated with biological or chemical terrorism.

learn about your rights to a safe work environment while responding to emergencies!

information from ana it is also important that you work with your employer as part of your preparation to participate in this type of response effort. ana's commission on workplace advocacy (cwpa) developed two position statements to help guide you in your discussions with your employer. the first position statement, registered nurses rights and responsibilities related to work release during a disaster, which is posted in pdf format, speaks to the rights and responsibilities of registered nurses who desire release from their workplaces for the purpose of participating in a disaster relief effort. the second position statement, policy for work release during a disaster pdf, is a policy for use by employers to govern the release of registered nurses from their workplaces for the purpose of participating in a disaster relief effort.

further info:

http://www.nursingworld.org/news/disaster/bioprot.htm

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

ways ana helping with disaster response since 2001

[color=#333399]national nurses response team

be prepared to respond!

about the team

join the team

volunteer opportunities for registered nurses

[color=#333399]about the team

the american nurse association (ana) is pleased to be working with the office of emergency response, u.s. department of health & human services, in the establishment of the national nurses response team (nnrt). september 11, 2001, and the anthrax incidents that followed, were a wake up call with regard to the overall preparedness of the u.s. health system to adequately respond to a terrorist attack. ana knows that u.s. registered nurses stand ready to respond. the nnrt now creates an excellent opportunity for registered nurses who on september 11 were asking themselves, "what can i do to help my country?"

the nnrt will comprise ten (10) regionally based teams of 200 registered nurses who could be called upon to assist in chemoprophylaxis or vaccination of hundreds of thousands or millions of americans, or in another scenario requiring hundreds of nurses. team members will be enrolled in the national disaster medical system.

[color=#333399]join the team

the application for the team has been temporarily removed from the national disaster medical system website. for more information, see: www.oep-ndms.dhhs.gov

[color=#333399]volunteer opportunities for registered nurses

ana strongly recommends that if you want to respond to a disaster, do so as part of a team. this helps to ensure that you have the proper specialized training, are credentialed, and that the appropriate protective equipment and coordination are in place to make the best use of your skill and expertise.

additional information on other organized response efforts

in addition, contact your state nurses association and ask about state-level opportunities that may exist for a strong state and local level response of registered nurses.

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