DISASTER MANAGEMENT Flashcards
• This refers to the real-time event of a hazard occurring and affecting the ‘elements at risk’.
• The duration of the event will depend on the type of threat, for example, ground shaking may only occur for a few seconds during an earthquake while flooding may take place over a longer period of time.
The disaster event
- is the actual implementation of the disaster plan.
- use an incident command system, are relatively simple, are routinely practiced, and are modified when improvements are needed.
- need to be continually monitored and adjusted to the changing situation.
Activities a hospital, healthcare system, or public health agency take immediately during, and after a disaster or emergency occurs.
Response
Once the incident is over, the organization and staff needs to recover. Invariably, services have been disrupted and it takes time to return to routines.
- is usually easier if, during the response, some of the staff have been assigned to maintain essential services while others were assigned to the disaster response.
• Activities undertaken by a community and its components after an emergency or disaster to restore minimum services and move towards long-term restoration.
- Debris Removal
- Care and Shelter
- Damage Assessments
- Funding Assistance
Recovery
• Often this phase of disaster planning and response receives the least attention. After a disaster, employees and the community are anxious to return to usual operations.
• It is essential that a formal evaluation be done to determine what went well (what really worked) and what problems were identified.
• A specific individual should be charged with the evaluation and follow-through activities.
Evacuation development
• These are steps that are taken to lessen the impact of a disaster should one occur and can be considered as prevention and risk reduction measures.
Mitigation
• Evaluate the facility’s vulnerabilities or propensity for disasters.
• Issues to consider include: weather patterns; geographic location; expectations related to public events and gatherings; age, condition, and location of the facility; and industries in close proximity to the hospital (e.g., nuclear power plant or chemical factory).
Preparedness/risk assessment
• The nurse must be familiar with the personnel at the disaster scene and their roles and functions. A disaster scene is usaully broken up into three zones:
Disaster zone
Treatment zone
Transport zone
• It ithe actual location of the incident from where patient are to be removed as soon as possible.
• Majority of the disaster personnel are sent to this zone initially
Disaster zone
• Nurses spend most of their time in their zone during a disaster, where equipment and personnel to carry out patient care are concentrated.
• Activities carried out in this zone includes:
• Assesment of each patient
• Treatment of injuries
• Preparation for transport
Treatment zone
• It should be situated directly next to the treatment zone so that ambulances and other vehicles can load patient and leave for hospitals, delivering appropriate patient care.,
Transport zone
The word triage is derived from the French word trier, which means, “to sort out or choose.”
- process prioritizing which patients are to be treated first and is the cornerstone of good disaster management in terms of judicious use of resources (Auf der Heide, 2000).
Disaster triage
Two types of triage
Simple triage
Advanced triage
is used in a scene of mass casualty, in order to sort patients into those who need critical attention and immediate transport to the hospital and those with less serious injuries.
• This step can be started before transportation becomes available.
• The categorization of patients based on the severity of their injuries can be aided with the use of printed triage tags or colored flagging.
Simple triage
doctors may decide that some seriously injured people should not receive advanced care because they are unlikely to survive.
_____ will be used on patients with less severe injuries.
• Because treatment is intentionally withheld from patients with certain injuries, advanced triage has an ethical implication.
It is used to divert scarce resources away from patients with little chance of survival in order to increase the chances of survival of others who are more likely to survive.
Advance triage
