Volunteer Nurses Needed for Hurricane Emergency!

nurse/realtor · Sep 2, 2005

I am an RN in Michigan and was instructed to call the Red Cross to Volunteer. When I did I was told that I could not be sent until I went through orientation to learn how to distribute food. This orientation was not until the end of next week, and then they told me that they are not sure I am needed???? I think I could learn to distribute food on the trip down south. Does anyone know of other agencies in Michigan I can contact to volunteer? The Red Cross is not being helpful.

realnursealso/LPN, LPN · Sep 2, 2005

I emailed Larry King to tell him of some of the answers we have been getting when we tried to volunteer to help. Maybe he can make it so the ones who have no transportation to the hurricane area can be transported. I got through to Lousiana on wednesday, they wanted me to come, but were very disappointed when I told them I had no transportation to get there.

My mind was so foucused on this I forgot to say Hi to all my allnurses friends. Hi everyone

Also I mentioned, in the email to Larry King, the 3 week commitment the Red Cross wanted, and how most of us cannot afford to be away from work for 3 weeks. Take care all, and God Bless. Will be praying for all of us again tonight :redbeathe

ERnurse07 · Sep 2, 2005

I emailed Larry King to tell him of some of the answers we have been getting when we tried to volunteer to help. Maybe he can make it so the ones who have no transportation to the hurricane area can be transported. I got through to Lousiana on wednesday, they wanted me to come, but were very disappointed when I told them I had no transportation to get there.
My mind was so foucused on this I forgot to say Hi to all my allnurses friends. Hi everyone
Also I mentioned, in the email to Larry King, the 3 week commitment the Red Cross wanted, and how most of us cannot afford to be away from work for 3 weeks. Take care all, and God Bless. Will be praying for all of us again tonight :redbeathe

Great idea - think I will email Larry King about how Canadian nurses wnat to help and that we are being turned away because of licencing - I also read on one of the US websites that nurses going to Texas from Lousiana are required to pay a $200 dollar fee to get a Texas licence - I am thinking the bureaucrats need to let some things go in this time of crisis - these nurses are voluntarily going to transport patients to safety - for them to be told to pay is ridiculous :angryfire To all of you nurses dealing with this tragedy - I wish I could help - I am sitting here biting my nails wishing I could jsut go down tehre and help you :crying2: I felt the same way during 9/11 - I am praying all the time for your safety and relief.

showbizrn · Sep 2, 2005

Great idea - think I will email Larry King about how Canadian nurses wnat to help and that we are being turned away because of licencing - I also read on one of the US websites that nurses going to Texas from Lousiana are required to pay a $200 dollar fee to get a Texas licence - I am thinking the bureaucrats need to let some things go in this time of crisis - these nurses are voluntarily going to transport patients to safety - for them to be told to pay is ridiculous :angryfire To all of you nurses dealing with this tragedy - I wish I could help - I am sitting here biting my nails wishing I could jsut go down tehre and help you I felt the same way during 9/11 - I am praying all the time for your safety and relief.

I, too, commend all my colleagues who are volunteering their time, labor and hearts for the Katrina disaster victims. I wll be donating blood and money because I am unable to volunteer the required 3-weeks+. GOD BLESS YOU ALL! :saint:

NurseFirst · Sep 2, 2005

I, too, commend all my colleagues who are volunteering their time, labor and hearts for the Katrina disaster victims. I wll be donating blood and money because I am unable to volunteer the required 3-weeks+. GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

Make sure you know what the time commitment is from YOUR local Red Cross. Here, in the San Francisco Bay Area, they've lowered it to a 9-day commitment. I'd be surprised if that weren't true in other places.

As for the person who thinks they can distribute food and learn how on the way down...I'm wondering...would that training include what to do if you are 1) shot at; 2) mobbed; 3) run out. Some of these things might need to include more training than just sitting in a classroom, may include some exercises requiring some space...

I will say that it's ironic that September is "Disaster Preparedness Month"... :)

NurseFirst

LuvPeaceRN · Sep 2, 2005

Red cross here in Kansas is requiring 3 weeks as well. They had two classes for training this week but they filled up almost as soon as the word got out! There doesn't seem to be any other outlets for nurses here in Kansas. One good thing, one of the Children's hospitals has taken in numerous evacuated children that needed medical care. My own hospital has sent out a couple of e-mails that are pretty wordy specifying that we need to tell them if we want to go down there and that if we're "cleared" we'll still get our salaries here and be under workman's comp which is a good thing...however, still no way to get down there or even where I should go! Its so frustrating for those of us feeling the urge to be in the South helping anyway we can and to be stuck up here instead. I don't think I've gotten any work done since this all happened, my mind is just somewhere else entirely.

Best wishes and lots of love to those of you helping during this horrible disaster.

glascow · Sep 2, 2005

Hi,I recieved this email from the louisiana association nurse practioner list serve :

Hey I just got off the phone with Barbara Morvant. I'm

sending the attachment. We can help out at different

places other than what is in our collaborative

agreement.

I told her I was quoting her while we were talking to

send to the list serve

Meg Fitzhugh

This was the attachment:

I'm speaking to Barbara Morvant on the phone.

She says "According to the nurse practice act the rendering of nursing assistance during emergencies or an individual disaster is an exception to the practice act. So therefore NP's working in a disaster would be functioning under that exception. They need to function with in their knowledge, skills and ability. You don't have to get approval if you work at a different site. You don't have to worry about having that approved at this time if your site is not under the collaborative agreement. During these emergency conditions, you have to work within your scope of practice within a collaborative agreement however, you are not required to have applied for site approval or prescriptive authority approval during emergency conditions"

If you have any questions contact them at

225-201-0993

225-201-0971 ( fax)

They are in the process of establishing temporary offices.

"We appreciate their indulgences during this difficult time but we will try to hand field these calls as many as we can during these temporary conditions. Most of the problem is communication.

Please have them fax to us the information of where that nurse practitioner is working so we can have that for our records and go back later to approve."

their web site is down but you can email them at

[email protected]

Meg

If you know any NP's in Louisiana please email this to them. Not every NP is on the list serve so they may not have gotten word. Thank you

nurse4theplanet, RN · Sep 2, 2005

OMG

Every little bit counts!!!!! I live just north of these disaster areas and we have thousands of people looking for a dry place to sleep and a hot meal that have nothing but the clothes on their backs....not even a toothbrush!

We took up donations through the SNA at my school, begging for spare change from anyone who walked by and we raised almost a thousand dollars in one day! Most people only gave a dollar or two or emptied out their change purses!!!!!

Everything Helps!

A few of us have talked about this, do to the economic conditions here, we seriously doubt we could raise much money, but, supplies are another story. We thought about basic items; toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, etc, pehaps a small comfort item for children? What do you all think? Would this be of help to anyone? Would we send through the red cross, or should we contact a student nurse organization in the area (not affected but on the outskirts) to handle distribution. Any suggestions, comments and such would be appreciated. We need to get this figured out before we attempt anything.
Thanks
Sunny

:) :) :) :) :) :)

glascow · Sep 2, 2005

Office of U. S. Surgeon General asks AANP's help mobilizing NPs

The Office of the U. S. Surgeon General has asked AANP for help in mobilizing nurse practitioners to aid in the aftermath of the enormous devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. If you are able to assist please click here http://www.aanp.org/About+AANP/Press+Releases/Hurricane+Katrina+Volunteers.htm

and complete the NP Response Form. AANP will forward your information to the Office of the U. S. Surgeon General. That office will contact you if your services are needed.

Emergency Nursing Volunteers Needed -- New Contact Numbers

LSNA is helping LA-DHH coordinate emergency nursing efforts. If you can help, please contact DHH at 225-763-5770 or 225-763-5740. Keep calling, because the phone system is not reliable. You can email them at [email protected] (the first letter is a lower-case "L").

If you can't get through to those numbers, call us at 1-800-457-6378, 225-201-0993, or email us at [email protected]. We may have more current contact numbers If you are calling, please keep trying. Most calls are not getting through to us. As far as we know, most emails are arriving.

We will keep our offices open during the Labor Day weekend to help coordinate this effort.

Volunteers from other states need a current license from their home state and a picture ID. No lodging is available; they should bring sleeping bags and be prepared to sleep at shelters. After assignment in LA they are asked to notify the Louisiana State Board of Nursing. The Louisana State Board of Nursing office can now be reached at the LSNA office: 1-800-457-6378, 225-201-0993, or fax # 225-201-0971. You can email them at [email protected]. They will be here this weekend also.

LSNA is also helping coordinate an effort to get displaced nursing students back into other schools of nursing, in this state and others. Please have anyone in this situation email us at [email protected] with all contact information, including where they went to nursing school and how far they have progressed.

SharkadelicRN · Sep 3, 2005

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!!

Reading this makes me wish I was still in Lafayette to help out right now. Unfortunately I am here in Pensacola and want to be able to help somehow. I have entered my name as available to volunteer with FSBN and we are also offering our house to evacuees here in Pensacola. Keep up the good work. Hearing this makes me proud to have worked with many of the healthcare workers involved over there.

SharkadelicRN · Sep 3, 2005

Red cross here in Kansas is requiring 3 weeks as well. They had two classes for training this week but they filled up almost as soon as the word got out! There doesn't seem to be any other outlets for nurses here in Kansas. One good thing, one of the Children's hospitals has taken in numerous evacuated children that needed medical care. My own hospital has sent out a couple of e-mails that are pretty wordy specifying that we need to tell them if we want to go down there and that if we're "cleared" we'll still get our salaries here and be under workman's comp which is a good thing...however, still no way to get down there or even where I should go! Its so frustrating for those of us feeling the urge to be in the South helping anyway we can and to be stuck up here instead. I don't think I've gotten any work done since this all happened, my mind is just somewhere else entirely.
Best wishes and lots of love to those of you helping during this horrible disaster.

I live in Pensacola, FL and last year we were hit by Ivan. I want to share what others did for us. It was a small simple gesture, but it brought me to tears. There was a hospital in another state, unfortunately I don't even remember which state or hospital it was, but each of their nursing units chose a hospital and unit that had been affected by the storm and sent them a care package. Our unit received one of these care packages. It included all kinds of stress relief items, soaps, bath things, chocolate, candies, snacks, new nurse socks. Like I said it was simple, but so thoughtful. It meant a lot to all of us to know that others were thinking about us and that they cared.

julzsham · Sep 3, 2005

sunnyjohn - contact http://www.texasnp.org/. I know they were looking for OR nurses, so it isnt unlikely they are needing techs too.

I am an experienced OR nurse. Can you tell me who to contact to volunteer?