EDMG503 Emergency and Disaster Planning and Management

Locate the disaster plan for your organization and evaluate your role as a nurse manager within that plan.

• Who activates the plan?
• How is the plan activated? 
• What is involved?
• Where is the command center located? 
• How is the plan communicated to staff? 
• How is the plan called off and debriefed afterwards? 
• What are the potential threats to quality care delivery in a disaster?
• What measures are implemented in the plan to ensure quality care is administered?
• Are there any suggestions you might add to the plan?

Introduction

A disaster is an unforeseen situation that paralyzes the normal functioning of the society as a whole thereby leading to great environmental, human and economic damages which in turn calls for external assistance either nationally or internationally. The disaster may be natural for example floods, earthquake and disease outbreak or man-made like terrorist bombing and nuclear attacks. A disaster plan is, therefore, the actual preparedness for the specific disaster, the responses to the disaster and finally the recovery stage after the disaster strike. Disaster leads to a fatal situation and so an effective disaster plan must be established so as to manage the impact of the disaster. In the current century, disaster preparedness awareness is being done to ensure efficiency. For this reason as nurse manager, you have to ensure that all the staff members are well educated and trained so that they know what is expected of them when disaster strikes (Jose, M. M., & Dufrene, C. ., 2014). There is the need for evaluation of risk related to the occurrence if a given disaster and the potential effects associated with it.

Who activates the plan?

The government calls for a state of emergency which is then reported to the relevant organizations like the Red Cross team and the hospitals. The plan is activated by the disaster plan director or the plan activation committee. Any person within the plan activation committee can request activation by contacting the disaster plan director or other members of the disaster plan committee.

How is the plan activated?

If there seems a possibility of a disaster then a conference call should be made in less than ninety-six hours before its occurrence so as to alert the members to take effective initiatives on the disaster. On the other hand, if the disaster occurs without notice then all the committee members having primary and secondary responsibilities within the plan work hand in hand to ensure the plan is effected immediately as earlier proposed. The staff required is then contacted by phone or email for the activation of the plan.

What is involved?

The unit planning team consists of staff members who will then perform their responsibilities as assigned in the plan. The nurse manager will then evaluate the disaster plan by ensuring the following steps; assessing the risk exposure and the extent of damages, ensuring the availability of the resources that are required for the effectiveness of the plan, engaging the emergency public services that may be of help to the situation, establish actions to protect lives of individuals and reduce the impact of the incident for example evacuation in case of nuclear bombing or lockdown in case of terrorist attack, training and educating personnel so that they become aware of their individual roles and then finally exercise your plan so as to know its effectiveness.

Where is the command center located?

The command center is the location from which the emergency response team operates and gets appropriate resources to help in the emergency condition. The incident command center should be located within the premises of the emergency. In cases where the premises of the emergency are not safe then it should be located in the next building within the emergency area and if the whole premise of the emergency is not safe then it will be set in an outdoor area central to the place which is safe. It remains operational until the incident commander calls off the emergency.

How is the plan communicated to the staff?

The crisis communication team has the role to communicate the members in case of an emergency being part of the disaster plan. They establish, maintain and make sure the crisis communication plan is effective. They ensure that they have all the contact information of all the staff in a central place and use the recommended method of communication in case of an emergency to coordinate with the team members.

How is the plan called off and debriefed afterward?

The incident commander calls off the disaster plan after the emergency through a conference call. Debriefing is a very critical stage after the occurrence of a disaster since it is necessary to the mental health and wellbeing of the affected individuals. For that reason the critical incident stress management team and critical incident stress debriefing team come in to perform their responsibility to guide and counsel so as to help them cope up with the impact of the disaster (Schonfeld, D. J., Demaria, T., COUNCIL, D. P. A., & Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health. ., 2015).

What are the potential threats to quality care delivery in a disaster?

• Inadequate resources- in case of a disaster that is very fatal the resources might not be enough for all the affected individuals in case they are very many or the necessary resources required to treat them may be missing.
• Availability of the staff- the nurses who should be delivering the health services may be limited and the affected patients being many hence poor quality services in the rush to rescuing all of them.
• Poor communicationsystem- if there is poor communication system then most staffs will not be updated in the occurrence of an emergency hence few will avail themselves to help.

What measures are implemented in the plan to ensure quality health care is administered?

• Updated communication system- this will ensure all the staff is updated when an emergency occurs and they will avail themselves to carry on with their respective responsibilities.
• Hiring adequate staff- the human resource manager should ensure all the staffs required like the critical incident stress debriefing is hired so as to enhance the plan.
• Adequate resources- they should ensure adequate resources depending on the disaster that is prone to that area and even other disasters.

Are there any suggestions you might add to the plan?

In case of an emergency the neighbors are the closest people and so they can come to your rescue before the emergency team arrives.it is therefore imperative to let them know how important they are to each other and the necessary actions they can take in case the disaster occurs.

You should not prepare once and forget about it. You need to revisit and update others occasionally.

You need to make use of the new technology systems to update people more about the disaster plan.it will make it more efficient and effective.

Conclusion

A disaster plan is very significant in the society and it helps reduce the impact of the disaster in its occurrence. Organizations and the government together with the people should work hand in hand to ensure it is effective so as to save lives and reduce its impact.

Bibliography

Jose, M. M., & Dufrene, C. (2014). Educational competencies and technologies for disaster preparedness in undergraduate nursing education: An integrative review. Nurse education today, 34(4), 543-551.

Schonfeld, D. J., Demaria, T., COUNCIL, D. P. A., & Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health. (2015). . Supporting the grieving child and family.