Community Emergency Preparedness and Response Paper

NUR/408
April 2, 2012
University of Phoenix

Community Emergency Preparedness and Response Paper
Firefighters cannot contain a forest fire that has been blazing for five days. The risk of the fire is not life-threaten but citizens are encouraged to remain indoors unless necessary to leave home because of the smoky winds. The smoke from the fire is affecting many of the residents in the community, especially those with preexisting lung diseases. The local hospital is full and the emergency room is over crowed. Patients are in need of beds in the hospital. The entire staff is stressed and pressed to discharge patients quickly to make room for patients holding in the emergency room. In addition nursing staff is required to work overtime to meet the needs of the community. Next, the Neighborhood Senior Nursing Clinic has seen more seniors than usual this week because of the smoky winds. Many of the seniors have needed to use their oxygen more often than usual this week. The seniors have been advised by the nurse Karen at the Neighborhood Senior Nursing Clinic to stay indoors to avoid respiratory irritants. Unfortunately, there had been an increase in seniors coming to the clinic in the past couple of years related to lack of extracurricular activities available to seniors in the community. After that a second grade student at the neighborhood school was sent to the school nurse because of difficulty breathing. She was noted to have an increased respiratory rate, coughing frequently, and wheezing in the lungs. The school nurse Violet calls her mother to pick her up and advise her to take her to the doctor. In addition nurse Violet advises the mother to send the child’s inhaler to the school for the nurse to keep in the nurse’s office because the student revealed to the nurse she has a history of breathing