Disaster Preparedness
Purpose
Formulate strategies using clinical judgment and decision-making skills to lead planning efforts for an emergency situation.
Overview
For this assignment you will explore the skills and knowledge you will need to prepare a community for a disaster.
Scenario: Your community is at high-risk for tornadoes. You are the nurse leader involved in your local Crisis Response Team. Your community (it may be a township, city, or county) is trying to update their emergency response plan. For this exercise, you are going to explore the current resources and plans available for your community, and identify gaps and potential resources to fill those gaps.
The exercise will help you understand the need for community resources to protect a community during and after an emergency situation. To successfully complete this assignment you will address each of the following:
Explore your community disaster/emergency response plans (look at city, county, etc., using search terms such as “disaster preparedness,” “crisis management,” and/or “emergency management.”)
Are there emergency/disaster strategic plans in place? What elements do they contain?
Identify current resources, and gaps where additional resources may be needed. Consider needs for safe water, housing, transportation, and food and medical supplies.
What plans are in place to insure health of the community, including care of the injured, management of the deceased, and physical and mental health.
Identify the partner agencies (such as Red Cross, United Way, etc.) and governmental agencies (FEMA, Homeland Security, etc) that may be needed to support a crisis response.
Discuss the current communication plans and alert systems and recommend additional communication strategies.
Action Items
Complete your assigned reading and viewing before starting this assignment. Read the rubric for the assignment.
Write a 2-3 page summary of your community emergency/disaster plans, addressing each of the bullet items above. Use APA format and be sure to cite the web resources that you searched for your community.
