Disaster in Franklin County
The role of the Health Personnel and the public nurse is to provide immediate relief in the aftermath of a disaster, helping the community to rebuild and recover from the damages sought by the disaster. The member of the public health personnel includes the public information officer, whose role is to make sure that the proper Public Health Information is disseminated to the public and all the agencies involved. This person has extensive experience in supervising and organizing people and will organize, supervise the team and resources. The Operations Section Chief is responsible for manifesting the objective and goal of the department. The Planning Section Chief is responsible for complying, analyzing and circulating information. This person directs the planning procedure of the team. The Logistic Section Chief, accesses the resources the operation requires to help the community through the disaster. They will organize for, supplies, equipment and spaces. The Financial/Administrative Section Chief is responsible for making sure that the team follows necessary contractual and financial processes. The Liaison officer is responsible for providing information by answering questions from all the agencies and acts as go-between them. The Public Nurse duty is to secure the well being of the people in the community to provide quality health care through the utilization of the multidisciplinary team available. In this disaster, the severe thunderstorm left the community heavy damaged. The flooding and power outage raises concern regarding drinkable water, food sources and septic system. There is also concern about deaths and those whom have become homeless due to the flood damages in their homes. The city set up the Incident Command Center where they can tackle the mirage of issues presented to them. Thankfully, the public personal available at work on this day have all been trained through National Incident Management System (NIMS) to understand their roles and responsibilities in address the problems the city is facing.
The community nurse serve below Public Health group, which is headed by the Medical Health Branch Director, whose is under the command the operation command chief of the Emergency Operation Center (EOC). The nurse would report to the operations chief who assigns and supervises the field resources. Some of the issues encounter will be outside the nurses’ scope of practice. The operations chief knows the resources available in the field and would better direct the nurse to the right departments. The Medical Health Branch Director would then report to the EOC commander during the briefings.
As the nurse makes her assessment and ascertain the need of the resident in the community. It is probable that some of their needs would be beyond the scope of the nurses’ practice. The recourses available to the nurse are within the Public Health Incident Command Center. As there is a possibility that the water supply is contaminated, the nurse would require the help of the logistic department to provide purified water to the residence. Some resident are displace due to the flood, the nurse would reach out to the command center to create space for shelter and the logistic department to provide supplies and equipment. It is important for the nurse to consider spiritual and religious needs for the residents while planning care. Having a spiritual support may give some resident strength to stay strong through the disaster as they deal with loses. Loss of loved ones, homes and uncertainty in the face of a disaster can cause short and long term negative psychological effects. The nurse must provide psychosocial support to addresses the resident’s emotional, social, mental wellbeing. The nurse should provide counselors, social worker and psychologist to help the resident address psychosocial needs.
The public health nurse is assigned to conduct a door to door interview to assess the need of the individual member of the community. At the beginning of the interview, the community nurse met a male resident of the community. His basement had been flooded and chemicals have spilt on the ground. In addition, his basement contains many chemicals containers such as paint thinners and solvent, the nurse contacted the command center and alert them to the need of a resident who needed information on how to clean up after a flood. She also communicated with Environmental Health Specialist and has then dispatch professions to the home to deal with the household hazardous waste. This situation is clearly beyond the scope of the nurse, but she is able to utilize recourses available to deal with the residents’ needs. Next the nurse encounters a resident who is clearly overwhelmed due to relationship strain with her husband and the lack of supplies for her baby. The priority for the nurse is to get supplies for the baby, before dealing with any other potential problems. The nurse can utilize the field resources to deliver supplies to this family. Where the family will have shelter is also of concern. They have no food and electricity. The family must be aware of the choices available to them and included in the decision to be made. The choices is for the family to stay in their homes recognizing that there would be no electricity for a days or move to the shelter where they would have most of the important recourses need, such warm food, electricity and supplies. It is important that the family is included in this decision. The nurse must also assess, as she converse with the woman if there are any issue with domestic violence. The nurse will send a social worker back later to investigate the possibility of domestic abuse. At the third household the family needs directions on how to use the generator they had purchase to deal with the emergency. Unfortunate the adult in the house does not speak English. The nurse attempted to communicate in minimal Spanish with the mother. She also spoke to the son, and gave them instructions on how to use the generator. The nurse has dealt with the immediate needs of the family and will communicate to Control Center and have them send instructions on generator operation in English and Spanish. She would also send a translator to come later and assess the needs of the family as there is a language barrier. At the final house on the door-door interview, the nurse meet a resident whom have ran out of high blood medication. The nurse assesses the resident, taking his vital signs, and determines the degree of his illness. Vital sign does not indicate his condition as critical, so the nurse was able to advise him to stay at home and medication will be delivered later to him.
The nurse allays the fear of the resident by listening and empowering them with information. This gave the residence the confidence to make decision about their needs. There are several techniques the nurse can utilize to help the residents deal with their fears and anxieties. These are as follows. Uncertainty and lack of knowledge creates fear and anxiety. The nurse should explain all the option available to the residents and how these can help them during this time. The residents will expresses less fear and anxiety when they have an understanding of what is going on. The nurse should assess how the patient deals with anxiety in the past and encourage them to utilize this same technique to alleviate their fear and anxiety during this situation. If the resident have irrational thoughts or fears, the nurse should give the resident the exact information and prompt to talk about what about the disaster is causing them the most fears. (" Care Plans For Anxiety," n.d.) The nurse should encourage the residents to engage in physical activities to encourage the body to release endorphins; this hormone will help the body fight stress and anxiety. The types of food eaten can arouse and increase anxiety; therefore the nurse should encourage the residents to make healthy food choices, by eating complex carbohydrates, drinking plenty of water, and limiting intake of alcohol, caffeine and sugars. The nurse finds viable solution to each individual specific need, which will sustain them until there is full recovery. When situation is beyond the scope of the nurse, the nurse delegates the problems to those who can help. The nurse will report back to the Medical Health Branch Director and the EOC commander, passing on her assessments and needs of the residents.
The public health department has been prepared for the disaster experienced by their community because they had previously gone through National Incident Management Systems. (NIMS ). The purposes of the training are to prepare organization “to prepare for, prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity”. ("National Management," 2011, p. 9) This training is developed by the Department of Homeland Security, post Katrina, this training is geared towards those in emergency management. Nurses desiring to help during a disaster would benefit from taking his course. The nurse can also join the Federal government initiative to provide nurse volunteer to communities during disasters. The National Nurses Response Team consists of nurses prepared to respond to disasters throughout the country. A nurse with this type of training would be valuable to the community and can be part of the Emergency respond team in any disasters.("Recruitment Information," 2011) With the frequent weather changes and shootings occurring in our communities, nurses could benefit from been certified in courses that addresses relief efforts.

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References
National Incident Management Systems. (2011). Retrieved February 6, 2013, from http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nims/nims_training_program.pdf
Nursing Care Plans For Anxiety. (n.d). Retrieved from http://nursing-concept.blogspot.com/2009/02/nursing-care-plans-for-anxiety.html
Recruitment Information: National Disaster Medical System. (2011). Retrieved February 6, 2013, from http://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/responders/ndms/teams/Pages/recruitment-old.aspx