Emergency Preparedness

[desro1986]

Hello. I have to research and do an oral report on disaster and emergency preparedness and the role of the RN in a disaster situation.

The only reference I have gathered thus far, though, is one book on disaster nursing. Does anyone know of any websites, or journal articles that cover this content?

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

every acute hospital is required to have an emergency response team. when i was a supervisor and manager it was usually the er managers who were on the committee overseeing this team. these coordinate with the other emergency services in the community--fire and police. each agency has, you guessed it, a manual outlining and describing everyone's role in the effort.

i would recommend that you call or visit either the local hospital, fire department, police department or city offices, identify yourself and what your assignment is and ask if you can see these manuals so you can complete your assignment. your best resource, i think, is going to be the hospital disaster manual or a chance to speak briefly with one of the rns on this disaster team/committee. it will most likely be a manager. as i recall, the manual laid out exactly what the nursing department had to do if emergency patients started coming in to the er and this involved triaging and communicating with other disaster teams as well as getting our internal nursing force organized. without the directions and paperwork in front of me i can't remember everything. some of the people who post on the emergency nursing forum might have a better answer for you.

[tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN]

I would also suggest the American Red Cross.

http://www.redcross.org/index.html

http://www.redcrosslv.org/nursing/nursefacts.html

I was one of the thousands of nurses deployed after Katrina. Red cross nurses not only provide direct emergency medical services during and after major disasters, but also teach disaster preparedness classes to the public before disaster strikes.