Scenerio: Electricity off, Generator not starting, No Water

[tiroka03, LPN]

I am sorry about another hurricane question.

So, your working nights, in LTC, hurricane hits, electricity goes out, generators won't kick in, phone lines are down, maybe structural damage, people can't get to you for a while. Even when they do, it's crazy. Do you know where and how to get to the things you need.

Do you know where the stocked food and water are for emergencies?

Do you know where the extra linen is kept?

Do you know how to jumpstart a generator, if you could find it?

At night everything is locked, we don't have keys or codes.

Do you know how to get into those locked doors?

Do you have a list of contact people?

Do you have a good and easy to find hurricane information book?

We don't. At least if we do, I don't know where it is. I have asked people, and they don't know anymore than me. So, we all just sit and hope nothing happens.

You know daylight is coming, and you'll have to feed all these people and keep passing meds, and do limited janatorial work. Has anyone gone through that? Or am I just being a scaredy cat?

[BrookeeLou_RN]

No you are a nurse who wants to be prepared.. I would ask the top person you can get to..Director, NM, or Administrator to have an in-service and answer all of your questions. Usually they have to have some kind of preparedness class every year anyhow. Keep asking till you get answers!!!!

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Hurricaines aren't sudden, like tornadoes... you'll have at least a couple of days to prepare. After the debacle of Katrina, most LTC facilities have enacted emergency plans that include evacuating their residents.If you are in an impact zone or one affected by storm surge, it's more likely that you will be helping with evacuation procedures than having to ride out a storm caring for residents.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

Plants Ops manager is usually in charge of most of those answers. I would ask the Risk Manager where the emergency preparedness plan is. If you are JC certified there is a plan somewhere.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

The in house supervisor should have acccess to most of those things, plus flashlights. They can redeploy staff to manually take care of whatever machine doesn't have adequate battery backup (bag a patient if the vent doesn't work). They should also be calling an internal disaster if maintenance doesn't get the generator going within about 30 minutes.

If phones are out someone will have a cell and you can start calling in resources to help you manage. You should have backup there within an hour. So for essential items...food...wait for backup, water...bottled on unit or in kitchen, power...flashlights, batteries backuop and manual labor, toilets...use without flushing for a brief time, or line with garbage bags and dispose of the bags manuaklly.

[MurrR]

I would be more worried about these things with a sudden emergency, but also...doesn't your facility have a required safety training?

The group home I work at, we're all required to know where the emergency supplies are and we check the emergency kit pretty regularly to make sure the food stash isn't expired, that the meds in the first aid kits are full and fresh, etc. etc. It's a state licensing thing - if somebody from the state asked me where the emergency supplies were and I didn't know, we'd get dinged for it. The stuff you're talking about would fall under "emergency supplies" at my place of work.