Disaster Nursing Reflection
Throughout the world, many natural and human-caused disasters and crises take place, which leads to multiple injuries, disabilities, and death. In the face of disasters, nurses have a significant presence and play crucial roles encompassing a multitude of responsibilities. They strive to help save the lives of others while trying to keep themselves safe from harm in disastrous situations. With natural disasters increasing, such as tornadoes and hurricanes, as well as crises involving diseases, such as the current pandemic, nurses’ responsibilities include providing acute patient care, triaging patients, and assisting in evacuations of patients to other facilities according to need. Nurses play a significant role with their hospital’s disaster plans. They triage cases, provide emergency room treatment, and manage complex clinical demands that occur during a crisis.
At the beginning of a disaster response, it is critical that nurses help activate the disaster management plan designed for their hospital. A disaster management plan, also known as an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP), describes in detail how a healthcare facility is going to respond to emergencies of different causes, size, and duration. To be ready for disastrous events, preparation is provided through education and training so that healthcare workers are poised to respond efficiently and effectively if the situation arises. They are trained to implement the EOP in a timely fashion so to provide the best possible patient care to those individuals suffering injuries or illness during a crisis. An EOP typically has nurses working with other health care providers to identify roles and responsibilities needed to best respond to the crisis. Nurses plan for risks and anticipated adverse complications; gather and allocate necessary materials, resources, and equipment, and they implement treatment interventions. Nurses are often the first support system injured or ill patients see, and it is a nurse’s job to provide comfort and care during the scary and stressful experience.
Notably, some disastrous situations occur in dangerous terrains and territories that not only risk the safety of the patients but nurses as well. Nurses are trained to help all those individuals in need, but they also need to recognize their own personal needs and whether it is a major safety risk to themselves to provide treatment to others. Other emergencies, such as long-term health crises like pandemics, can overwhelm nurses emotionally and physically due to lack of staff and resources resulting in them needing to make hard decisions that are opposite of core beliefs. In these ways, ethics play a major component for disasters. In Provision 2 of the ANA Code of Ethics, it states that a nurse’s primary responsibility is to the patient, however, in Provision 5 of the Code, it states that a nurse owes the same duty to self. This can be an extreme dilemma for a nurse in a crisis situation. A nurse is trained to save a patient at all costs, but if it is so risky that it jeopardizes their well-being, they need to consider themselves as well. This is an extreme example but if there was a gas explosion involving a huge factory, a nurse should not jump into the burning building to save someone regardless of how badly they want to help. There is a line a nurse cannot cross when it comes to self-risk. During a fast-spreading pandemic, when staff and resources are limited, a nurse can only work so many hours in a row under stressful conditions before they step back and take care of themselves for sleep deprivation, emotional duress, and physical exhaustion.
In conclusion, there is no question that a nurse’s primary commitment is to their patients. Nurses have a duty to provide the highest quality healthcare, but it cannot come as an expense to themselves. Nurses owe the same duties to themselves as they owe others including preserving their own safety and integrity. They are resolute professionals who take all measures possible caring for the ill and injured, but they should never sacrifice their well-being for the sake of anyone or any situation.
