Community Emergency Preparedness and Response It is not only exams that require preparedness. More than a planned activity, preparedness is required for unplanned activities. In health care, emergencies may mean danger to life of self or the loved ones. The medical emergencies are often stressful even for the doctors not only the victims. Hence the more a society is prepared for an emergency, the less will be side effects and in the same way if a society is caught by an emergency unprepared, the loss will can be potentially much higher than otherwise. Therefore, as they say prevention is better than cure, a society should be always prepared for emergencies.

Events in Neighborhood

Like bad time never comes with an alarm, a fire incident took place in forest and spread to the neighborhood nearby. The fire could not be overcome due to the windy season and it brought irrevocable damage to numerous acres of land. The fire had impact on the activities in neighborhood hospital, senior center, school and Bley household. Almost everybody was affected and it was advised to people to stay indoors. The events in these areas are summarized here.

Hospital

The fire incident spread smoke in the air. The smoke of fire made people ill and the healthcare facilities were crowded with people. It has become hard to breath in presence of dust in the air. Though the Smokey air is not fatal yet the surgeons and physicians are recommending citizens to avoid going out in dusty smoky air. The medical staff is too busy in helping people. Kate Swanson and Pat Richman are two such nurses in the hospital. Kate's unit is flooded with patients that have problems of emphysema and asthma arising from the fire incident. There is dearth of beds due to beds and emergency section is very busy. The staff is under stress with low morale. Pat is normally a relaxed person but overtime has made him angry too. Bobby, another nurse, is finding it hard to get time out with friends due to his tough routine. Life of nurses in senior senders is disturbed too.

Senior center

The fire has also changed the course of daily activities of senior citizens. In the nearby senior center, Karen is an experienced nurse. She takes care of the elderly. She noticed that after the incident of fire, many patients are using oxygen to breath. Some people are coughing therefore they are advised to stay indoors.

School

Nurses serving in schools have observed the impact of fire incidence on the health of children in school. Violet Brinkworth is serving as a nurse in school. Children have coughed and breathing uncomforted. A kid is wheezing in lungs. Her mother is called to take her home and if possible, send an inhaler to school to social benefit but the mother seems to be reluctant.

Bley household

Jimmy spends time at home with his family that comprises of wife, children and grandchildren. He likes to work on computers and internet and to spend some time in Neighborhood Senior Center. Besides a little hearing problem and emphysema, he was fine before the forest fire. He is confined to indoors due to smoky air but he cannot quit smoking that he knows he has to quit. He and his wife are bound not to stay home despite there are some outdoor tasks. Cecelia has osteoarthritis. She visits Church often.

Role of Health care Workers

In the incident of forest fire, the life of everybody around has suffered. The difference is that the nurses cannot sit indoors but they have to fulfill their responsibilities. They have to get to work daily and have to work even extra hours because the fire has caused smoky air that is injurious to breathing.

Emergency Preparedness it is necessary for hospitals and healthcare facilities to be ready for emergency situations. The local hospital had insufficient facilities. There were not enough beds for the increasing number of patients. The nurses are already not enough. Pat had been warning in past that they require more nurses in the hospital yet the nurses were less than required in normal routine. Now that the emergency has arrived, the only solution management has come up with is to increase the working hours and tighten the schedule of existing and available nurses. The environment is stressful and it seems that the nurses are not trained well for stress handling. They are becoming exhausted and hence the performance and productivity may be negatively affected soon. Hence, the emergency preparedness is low in terms of physical assets, human resource, training as well as motivation.

Although not as skilled and professional as the doctors, the nurses are equipped with the medical knowledge that can help deal with health ailments. The role of nurses become more critical when there are infections, cough and sore throat seasons, or emergencies. The nurses need to show their availability for doing major (like operations) and minor (like helping a patient go to washroom) tasks. The role of nurses was also clearly depicted in the given scenario. There were a few nurses doing their emergency jobs.
The initial nursing response was seen from Kate and Pat in local hospital, Karen in senior center and Violet in the school. Kate has done well by working extra hours and serving the patients. Pat was proactive and he indicated lack of nurses even before the incident yet he was not heard. He is also offering help in the hospital but he does not seem happy with the decision of management. Karen is old herself yet she is helping people take oxygen and remain inside. Violet is working in a very small set up of school where there is even no inhaler. She is helping students on one hand and motivating other civilians to help too.

Nursing Monitoring of Emergency

Although there are already many nurses working in locality in school, hospital, senior center and residence. However, the hospital can hire few Certified Emergency Nurses that can have training as well as expertise in emergency nursing (Looking for a Career in Public Health Program Management? 2013). These nurses know how to deal with stress at work and tough times. They have capacity to work long hours without taking breaks. They can better understand the health conditions of people and can offer better advice.

Public Health Agencies

No institution in a society can run well without cooperation of citizens. Health care representatives work in hospitals, schools, senior centers and many more. The public health agencies can also work with gyms, vocational training center, Church etc. NGOs are another sector of society that can prove to be very helpful. The members of gym are very healthy and they can be very productive for the society. They can volunteer to arrange sources for the hospitals and other health care institutes. The Church members are very effective in the area and people come and listen to them. The Father of the Church should call people to help the hospitals by cooperating. They can give extra beds as rental charity. Also the NGOs can arrange funds for the hospitals and buy those beds and medicine. These NGOs can easily have inhalers and oxygen masks for the patients. The institutes can also combine their efforts to synergize and offer greater utility to the society. The emotional, physical and financial help is not only required during the emergency but these institutes should plan to make such arrangements that help prepare society for emergencies. The people should be ready before they face a loss.

Citizens' Preparedness For Community Emergencies

The citizens in societies such as America are well equipped in terms of knowledge, skills and money. This can be e people only need to have organized initiatives towards emergencies. There can be centralized or individualized efforts. The public agencies can play their effective role in centralizing the citizen's efforts. There can be joined community funds and volunteer centers. The funds can be monitors by any of the public agency whether the Church, NGO or a gym. Every citizen in neighborhood should be requested to monthly submit a small fixed amount in the fund that will be used in community building for dealing with emergencies. Besides that, the volunteer work will be effective since the people will be guided about first aid and initial health care. This will allow people to take preventive measures when there is an emergency.

In Bley household, it helped people identify what is good for them and what is not. Hence people can manipulate what steps are more effective when there is emergency. Hence, Jimmy's wife goes out rather than sending him. Hence it helps to know how to carry daily activities without hurting anyone.

Personal Preparedness

The society is a collection of its people. The people can come up with plans as well as preparations that can solve emergencies as well as come out of catastrophes. It is people that know best about themselves. Not necessarily everyone needs to come up with big plans and funds to prepare for emergencies. What is needed…