Community Emergency Preparedness and Response Paper University of Phoenix NUR/ 408 Kimberly Oatman Community Emergency Preparedness and Response Paper Risk for disasters is a part of life; emergency situations occur more frequently than many people believe. A wise person plans for the worse, and hopes for the best. After a disaster, how well a community can recover will depend largely on how well they prepared in advance. Risk management includes identifying any potential risks to a community and proactively planning to minimize the threat. Proactive organization of resources and people to respond to emergencies can mean the difference between a community’s ability to regroup and recover, and the loss of life. To better …show more content…
The nurse who runs the center has thirty-plus years of geriatric experience. She has educated seniors to stay inside, away from the smoke irritants in the air, after noting their increased oxygen use and coughing. Actions of Health Care Workers Actions at the Emergency Room and Hospital Neighborhood’s hospital is filled with patients who are ill with exacerbations of asthma and emphysema related to the poor air quality and smoke. The hospital’s emergency department calls for in-patient beds but there are no beds available. There are more patients needing beds than there are beds available. The emergency room nurses keep calling the floors to request beds, and none are available. The staff morale is low because they all feel the stress related to the pressure of early discharge for patients to make beds available. The nurses are kept busy with discharges and admissions, and are feeling overwhelmed and under-staffed. Hospital administration has decided to implement mandatory overtime adding to the stress of the staff. Actions at the Senior Center Many seniors have been using their oxygen more frequently. One client has told her he is coughing since the fire began. The geriatric nurse, Karen, who works at the center has advised many seniors to stay indoors and away from the irritants in the air. She has provided health screenings and education to
As many of the service users within the hospital may already be in a vulnerable state, the exposure to smoke may worsen their condition if not addressed quickly. Some of the effects of smoke exposure to a service user already suffering from respiratory problems can include the inability to breathe normally, excessive cough with or without mucus, discomfort in the chest and wheezing or shortness of breath. All problems that can lead to more serious problems if not looked at and fixed as quickly as possible. Another problem that can occur during the case of a fire, can include a safety breach. When the fire alarm is set off inside the hospital it is important to follow the procedure and get everybody to
This is a major hazard because if the environment in a nursing home is unclean this can lead to spreading diseases, infections and causes the environment to start to smell and that could add up to the patients illness.
As we know, older residents are susceptible to infections because of multi-morbidity, greater severity of illness, functional impairment, cognitive impairment, incontinence, and the presence of frequent short-term and long-term indwelling device use such as urinary catheters and feeding tubes. For infection prevention control program, an effective infection prevention program includes a method of surveillance for infections and antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, an outbreak control plan for epidemics, isolation and standard precautions, hand hygiene, staff education, an employee health program, a resident health program, policy formation and periodic review with audits, and a policy
For those that receive care a hazard for an elderly person could be that they cannot see
Disasters, whether natural or manmade, can happen anytime and anywhere, without warning. An earthquake, hurricane, tornado, fire, or hazardous material spill or even an act of terrorism can happen
In “Wither the Emergency Manager,” Niel R. Britton comments on Drabek's “Human Responses to disaster: An Inventory of Sociological Findings.” Britton describes six positive and negative issues in emergency management as it is today. In this paper, we will discuss the implications on emergency management as a field and on the individual manager.
Tragic events that cause damage to property and life may destroy the social, cultural and economic life of a community. Communities must be engaged in the various phases from prevention to recovery to build disaster resilient communities. In order to do this, there must be a disaster preparedness plan in place that involves multiple people in various roles.
With the population of adults 65 and over steadily climbing, medical professionals and the healthcare system are struggling to keep up. One major issue concerning the healthcare system is that it is not set up properly provide care for these older adults. The physicians today, who regularly see patients, focus mainly has been; diagnose—usually in a 15-20 minute office visit, treat, and cure. Many of these senior citizens have multiple chronic illnesses or diseases, which require time to manage and treat. The problem is that they may not be able to explain what the real problem to a doctor in that time.
The article demonstrates studies that show how older patients with asthma represent the second highest age group that are hospitalized for asthma, have higher healthcare cost, and represents more that 50% of all asthma-related deaths. The explanation for why there is such a low recognition of asthma in older patients is due to a number of factors such as health care workers misdiagnosing the major symptoms of asthma with common diseases in older adults, older patients not seeking medical attention, not disclosing asthma symptoms due to cognitive impairment, fear of illness and death, financial unstable, and confusing symptoms as normal part of aging. Another major factor is the lack of use of spirometer in older patients; spirometer is a very helpful tool in diagnosing and managing asthma. The final part of the article focuses on what we can do to help the situation. First it recommends that nurses become knowledgeable about asthma in older patients, by doing so nurses will be better equipped to
Since seniors often have immune systems that are not as strong as they were in younger years, it is important to take precautions to avoid sickness. Preventing sickness by washing hands, getting a flu shot each year, seeing the dentist to prevent oral infections, and receiving a pneumonia vaccine are all ways to lessen the chances of developing lung disease.
In a new form of protection and communication, social media is the main thing that everything is using in today’s times. Marketing employees have positions as titled as social media directors. Companies have people watching and monitoring everything that happens with their social media reputation all hours of the day everyday. Young people are seeing the power of social media everyday with teachers demonstrating how fast a picture can be shared across the world. Social media is relatively new and could possibly open many gates for communication. This depends heavily on who is publishing information and news on social media. If news spreads fast on social media, then the use of it can be used for emergencies. If many people are
In less than two decades, social media has revolutionized modern communication and information sharing. What began as a simple form of social networking has turned into innumerable platforms for people around the globe to share ideas, create and share businesses, promote brands, read news from various sources, as well as share and find vast amounts of information, among many other uses. Thus, with a few clicks of a button, people are now able to interact with someone on the other side of the world. The capabilities created through social media’s many uses have forever changed global politics, business, and interpersonal communication.
I enjoyed reading your post on the assessment of building health information and the choice of risk assessment tool. According to Wu and Orlando (2015), health risk assessments provide an opportunity to emphasize health promotion and disease prevention for individuals and populations at large. Sullivan (2012) stated that numerous screening instruments have been developed to detect common geriatric problems. The Katz Index of activities of daily living (ADLs) and Lawton instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) scale are examples of tools used to screen a patient’s functional ability. The Katz Index addresses specific ADLs, such as bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, continence, and feeding. The Lawton Scale scores points on functionality
Protecting the public’s health historically has been a state and local responsibility. However, the growing threat of bioterrorism has highlighted the importance of a strong public health infrastructure to the nation’s homeland security and has focused increased attention on the preparedness of the public health system (Frist, 2011). Since the 2001 anthrax attacks Congress has passed new legislation to increase the strength of the nation’s public health system thus the funding has also rapidly increased to meet the potential demand. There is an ongoing debate however, as to what level of contribution local, state, and federal agency’s feel is an appropriate level of ongoing public health investments.
Director John Simpson has stated that his department functions by operationalizing risk management. Operationalizing risk management relies on an ever-evolving process that incorporates feedback loops through a system of monitoring and evaluation. Risk management takes a proactive instead of reactive approach by classifying existing and potential risks and then developing interventions to mitigate those risks before a disaster strikes (Module 11). Measuring vulnerability and resilience to potential risks, permits a community to be proactive. There is a direct correlation between improved resiliency and improved outcomes after a risk becomes a reality (McEntire et. al, 2002).