Enhancing Nursing Skills For Disaster Response And Recovery

The Role of Nurses in Disaster Response

Question:

Discuss about the Disaster Nursing.

Disaster usually occur throughout the world, which poses a public health threat as well as result in the tremendous effects with regards to the deaths , injuries , infrastructure along with facility damage and devastation . The nurses as the leading group of the dedicated health personnel, happen to be being part of difficult conditions with the aid of restricted resources, additionally they perform vital when especially when the disaster occurs (Yin, Arbon & Zhu, 2011). The nurses have also served as the first responders, triage offices, provide information or the education and they also acts as the counsellors. Nonetheless, the health systems as well as the health care delivery in the catastrophe circumstances are only successful whenever the nurses have the skills in the disaster or maybe the capability to react rapidly together with effectively (Yin, He, Arbon & Zhu, 2011). Based on ICN code, in support of the Members State and the Nurses they recognize on the urgent need to accelerate the effort in order to build the capacities for the nurses at every level to safeguard the population. Moreover, they will limit on the injuries and the death, as well as maintain the health system functionality and community health wellbeing, throughout the continued midst of the disasters.

Determining on the nursing skills, which are relevant to the nurses participating in the disaster response medical team, is significant (Yan, Turale, Stone & Petrini, 2015). The essay will provide on recommendations on how to enhance training of the nurses who are usually the first responders to a disaster situation. Moreover, the essay will provide an insight on how to improve on the capacity of the nurses in order to prepare as well as respond to the severe natural disasters. It is important to note that the nurses play a significant role in the response to teams at site where disaster has occurred (Chen, Chang, Feng, Lin, Chen, Lee & Lai, 2017). The aspect the essay will explore majorly are the ways of determing on the nursing skills, which are the most critical for participating in the disaster site and the recommendation to be made to the different organization.

According to research on Dorsey (2009), on their view on the ICN code on nurses and the people, the various nations are usually vulnerable due to the lack of funding for the disaster preparedness. Moreover, there may be effect of the disasters on the health care, the economic as well as the infrastructure of the region, which have been affected. Disaster could change the development that have been made in a country in seconds. The need to have a qualified individual who are ready to respond to the disaster as well as participate in the preparedness is very important (Li, Li, Yang & Xu, 2016). Organization as well as group should address this issue through development of the competencies in order to describe on the role of the responders and through the development of the specialized educations as well as programmes.  According to Dorsey finding they have noted that competencies have been developed for the public health workers, the health providers, and the emergence nurses. The nurses are the largest health care providers therefore; there is need for the development of their competences especially when it comes to disaster response and recovery (Li, Yang & Xu, 2016). Nonetheless, WHO have observed that the nurses have demonstrated their values in various situation of disasters since they possess the knowledge as well as skills and ability to supporting the humanitarian efforts. However, the challenge they have been dealing with is the complexity of the disasters, which require every nurse to gain knowledge base as well as a minimum set of skill so that they could be able plan as well as respond to the disaster in a manner that is timely and much more appropriate.

Determining Critical Nursing Skills for Disaster Response

On the study done by Yin, He, Arbon & Zhu (2011), on the research to explore the fundamental ICN code of the practices and the nurses especially in disaster site, clear shows that the top three skills, which are important to the nurse in the situation of disaster: are intravenous insertion, observation and monitoring as well as the mass casualty triage. The research was based on the situation where there was a Wenchuan earthquake disaster. Moreover, the nurse must all the time retain criteria of the individual perform that reflect on the clearly of their profession in addition to improve on the image along with the public assurance. Furthermore, they discovered that the nurses generally play an immense role particularly in the emergency response teams at the sites of an emergency. These people are generally equipped for the problems of handling the vast accidents because they have used frequent skills for instance debridement along with the dressing, observation and checking along with intravenous insertion (Yan, Turale, Stone & Petrini, 2015). Nonetheless, there is little research, which has existed on the basic skills of the nurses that are needed when they first respond to a disaster situation (Yin, Arbon & Zhu, 2011).  This research concluded that the core skills, which are essential for the disaster response training, are the vast casualty transportation, the crisis control, fixation, observation along with monitoring, control of a given infection and the patient care recording.

Based on the study done by Yan, Turale, Stone & Petrini, (2015) highlighting the fundamental element of ICN code of nurses and their profession especially in the disaster nursing skills, knowledge and attitude found out the following. The nurses usually assume the major role especially when determing as well as implementing the appropriate specifications of the health related nursing technique, together with study and education (Ranse, Hutton, Jeeawody & Wilson, 2014). The result further showed that the nurses need to receive training before they engage at the earthquake disaster sites just as the situation in China of the earthquake where some of the nurses did not have the training to handle such cases (Usher, Redman-MacLaren, Mills, West, Casella, Hapsari & Amy, 2015). China need to support these individuals with the necessary education in order to implement training utilizing almost all the hazard technique, which are dependent with the international ideal practiced as well as trainees’ record of accomplishment of experience along with the knowledge. On the study completed by Loke & Fung , ( 2014 ) exploring the considered emergency competencies in Hong Kong nurses emphasizes that the administrators of the hospital would need to develop an ongoing education to be able to prepare the nurses with the competencies required for the disaster care in their particular regions of specialty . The study revealed there is requirement for the skills for the Hong Kong nurses. Additionally , there is certainly need to utilize the ICN framework that could represent the guide and a modification along with its refinement in order to improve functionality as well as validity of the skills for the community. According to Li, Yang & Xu (2016) highlights that the nurses usually play a crucial part of the disaster relief team as their main goal is helping individuals and the affected communities in order to achieve the best level of the health services. This aspect aligns with the ICN code of ethics as one of the element. It is therefore important for the nurses to acquire competencies in order to be able to respond to the disaster and avoid chaos and disorganization, which may increase casualties and property losses. The research further, found that the role of the nurses in the disaster usually extend beyond the disaster itself and there is need to have pre-disaster prevention and preparedness measures.

Recommendations for Enhancing Nursing Training

Throughout the management of the disaster continuum, the nurses are usually fill array roles. The frequently role related to the disaster is they may be visible during the response phase, when preservation of the life along with the maintenance of the health. These are just accountable from the emergency preparedness together with response to a long lasting recovery and help to manage the health outcomes events. Disaster nursing normally requires one to apply the basic nursing knowledge as well as skills in difficult environment having scarce resources and altering conditions. They need to constantly adjust the nursing practices to prevent particular inference particularly when in a specific disaster circumstance whilst attempting to minimize the health hazardor perhaps the life threatening damage, which has been caused by the disaster (Alim, Kawabata & Nakazawa, 2015). Competency in the preparedness for the prevention disaster is important and the nurse role should extend beyond the disaster itself. With the understanding of the aspect of epidemiology of the disaster, the nurses can anticipate various health consequences as well as the delivery issues based on the type of the event. An example, in the situation of the earthquakes, one may expect many deaths as well as severe injuries and the damaged health facilities (Loke & Fung, 2014). Preparedness and mitigation have become world priorities for the nurses. These individuals could help reduce the risk as well as the impact of the disaster on the population and the community and hence save of lives.

The lack of the recognized abilities along with the gaps in the education has played a part in the difficulty to recruit nurses prepared to the react to a disaster along with offer guidance in effective signifies ( Loke & Fung , 2014 ) . The ICN code of Ethics has stressed on the value for the human rights and sensitivity to the values as well as the customs. The code might be relevant to the facets of preparedness for the disaster. The nurses are usually expected to practice in respect to the tenets in the disaster along with adjust on their practice as needed to be able to meet almost all the requirements of the disaster environment ( Dorsey, 2009 ) . There needs to be provision of assistance, which necessitate awareness of the customs as well as the culture, and assurance of personal dignity and confidentiality. In circumstance of disaster, it necessitate the nurses to render challenging and ethical choices, which are in the midst of the scarce resources (Loke & Fung, 2014). The areas to build up on the skills of nursing need to concentrate in areas for instance emergency nursing, paediatric nursing and the public health. There is need to incorporate the core competencies of the ICN framework to the generalist nurse. The disaster nursing involve the application of the basic nursing competencies along with the disaster nursing competencies to a particular disaster situation.

Conclusion

The increased effects of the disaster on people as well as communities requires to have a continued progression of the competent nurses to be able to fill almost all the requirements of the health care providers to have the ability to improve with intricate human contingencies . The ICN disaster-nursing skills usually are believe that the nurses possess the fundamental expertise particularly when it comes to crisis along with the trauma care. The ICN code ethics has displayed the foundation for the development of the evaluation tools that can be employed by the individual nurses to evaluate their own needs of education, along with the development of the training programmes. The essay has presented the case of the disaster in nursing and the recommendation, which could be implemented, based on the ICN code of ethics of the nurses.

References

Alim, S., Kawabata, M., & Nakazawa, M. (2015). Evaluation of disaster preparedness training  and disaster drill for nursing students. Nurse education today, 35(1), 25-31.

Chen, I. H., Chang, S. C., Feng, J. Y., Lin, S. J., Chen, L. C., Lee, C. L., & Lai, F. C. (2017).  Nurse Participation in Continuing Education in Disaster Nursing in Taiwan. Journal of Emergency Nursing.

Dorsey, D. M. (2009). ICN framework of disaster nursing competencies. World Health     Organization and International Council of Nurses, Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved from:   https://www. icn.ch/images/stories/documents/publications/free_publications/24_June_2009_Disaster_Nu            rsing_Competencies_lite. pdf.

Li, S. M., Li, X. R., Yang, D., & Xu, N. W. (2016). Research progress in disaster nursing competency framework of nurses in China. Chinese Nursing Research.

Loke, A. Y., & Fung, O. W. M. (2014). Nurses’ competencies in disaster nursing: Implications     for curriculum development and public health. International journal of environmental        research and public health, 11(3), 3289-3303.

Ranse, J., Hutton, A., Jeeawody, B., & Wilson, R. (2014). What are the research needs for the field of disaster nursing? An international Delphi study. Prehospital and disaster     medicine, 29(05), 448-454.

Usher, K., Redman-MacLaren, M. L., Mills, J., West, C., Casella, E., Hapsari, E. D., ... & Amy,   Y. Z. (2015). Strengthening and preparing: Enhancing nursing research for disaster          management. Nurse education in practice, 15(1), 68-74.

Yan, Y. E., Turale, S., Stone, T., & Petrini, M. (2015). Disaster nursing skills, knowledge and   attitudes required in earthquake relief: Implications for nursing education. International          nursing review, 62(3), 351-359.

Yin, H., He, H., Arbon, P., & Zhu, J. (2011). A survey of the practice of nurses’ skills in Wenchuan earthquake disaster sites: implications for disaster training. Journal of    advanced nursing, 67(10), 2231-2238.

Review of the literature