Disaster in Franklin County Explain the Role

Disaster in Franklin County

Explain the role of the major public health personnel, including the public health nurse, involved in the disaster.

There are many expectations of the public health personnel in such a situation. The major one is to take care of the security of the affected right on the spot. In addition, the general welfare of the whole society is also a role that the personnel have to play immediately. Moreover, it is imperative that the personnel also give attention to any future issues that may arise in relation to the disaster. In this instance, the nurse is also part of this team and, therefore, is expected to perform all these obligations (Olson et al. 2010). In this particular disaster, the concerns that required urgent attention were the welfare of the people. These include food and water, which are necessary for the survival of the casualties. Power is also important as it takes care of the septic system and the providence of healthy food. The role of the nurse is to take care of the immediate casualties. In addition, the personnel should be part of any taskforce to help in maintaining the situation and avoiding future situations similar to this one (Olson et al. 2010).

Describe the chain of command that was used in the simulation for the community health nurse.

Prior to the disaster, there had been a request for the Public Health Director. Public health staff could be of no help to the community if they are not well conversant with the issues at hand. Therefore, it was truly beneficial to the society that they had undergone through NIMS training (Olson et al. 2010). In this case, this stands for the National Incident Management System, which helps a lot in the management of such disasters. With all this experience present, it was easy to come up with a command system that was suitable for the job. Therefore, there was the selection of some section chiefs to oversee the whole process. Under these heads, a command staff would take care of the issues on the ground. Since all the members that were taking part in the process had this specialized training, it was easy for instructions to flow easily, which enhanced efficiency in the overall process (Olson et al. 2010).

Discuss the resources available to the community health nurse to deal with situations outside the nurse's scope of practice.

The scope of the community health nurse is to deal with the immediate injuries that occur in a situation. However, some cases are extremely complex and require that the nurse has some specialized resources to handle the situations. The situation that occurs may seek the attention of the nurses regardless of whether that is part of their scope. In some cases, it is the change in the situation that may change and, therefore, require that the nurses provide more than they ought to in the first place. In such a situation, the nurse is provided with some extra resources. This includes the resources to change a fully-fledged hospital to a small treatment center only for these immediate disasters (Couig & Rick 2011)

.Describe actions taken by the community health nurse when encountered with possible emergency situations during the door-to-door interviews.

During the course of their interviews, the nurses encountered different situations that required some specialized attention. Since the emergencies are different in nature, the nurses have to be prepared at all times on whichever may occur and on how to handle them. Considering that the nurses have the knowledge on all these situations, then the most vital thing is to have the resources. Therefore, some of the actions, which the community health nurse undertook on an immediate basis, include the administering of first aid on all situations that required such an action. Another urgent action is the screening of the interviewees during the whole process. This action ensures that the interviewees are at peace with the knowledge on their health (Couig & Rick 2011). Trauma management is also another action that the community health nurse had to deal with in these interviews. This is because of the adverse effects that trauma could have on the general welfare of the people.

Describe actions taken by the community health nurse to help the people who were interviewed cope with the situations after the flooding.

People affected by floods suffer a significant setback in their lives in many ways. Apart from losing their property and in some cases also their loved ones, these people suffer a terrific deal of trauma. In this disaster, the nurses had to take into account all these factors and help in each of them accordingly. The first step is to ensure that the general safety of the people affected by the floods. From here, the provision of shelter is the next step. This is because most of the affected people in the floods have already lost their shelters. In addition, the whole process is tasking to the minds of those interviewed and, therefore, the nurses have to ensure that they offer moral support for them. Therefore, one of the most crucial actions that the community health nurse undertook was the offering of moral support to the interviewed in order to cope with the trauma of the disaster.

Discuss techniques that were used or could have been used to calm the fears of the people interviewed.

The first technique and perhaps the basis of the whole process is to listen carefully. This does not just entail hearing what people are saying, but actually letting them know that they are being listened to carefully. Another technique is to ensure that all the promises are actually attended to promptly. In this case, if the community health nurse promises that something will be done for the people, then it is best if this is true (Worrall 2012). This is because this gives the people hope that their situation is not as severe as it seems and, in fact, someone genuinely cares for them. Documentation of the information is also necessary as a technique of showing that the process is professional. In this way, the affected people will be calm and consequently relax in the professionalism of the whole disaster management.