Disaster nursing key to emergency care during and after hurricanes

Disaster nursing key to emergency care during and after hurricanes

Nurses were among the trained healthcare providers ready for deployment as Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm, pummeled parts of the Bahamas with 185 mph winds and threatened Florida’s East Coast.

Teams of nurses and other healthcare providers have been part of the nation’s disaster response effort for many of the hurricanes that have devastated areas with high winds and flood waters.

Kathi Harvey, DNP, FNP-BC, NHDP-BC, APRN, a certified National Healthcare Disaster Professional, is one of those nurses trained to deploy as part of the U.S. Disaster Medical Assistance Team.

Harvey, an adjunct faculty member at Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, in Boca Raton, Fla., spent a month in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, a strong Category 4 storm. She tells us that while being a member of one of many organizations that provides healthcare relief after disasters is gratifying, there’s a lot more to disaster nursing than nurses might realize.

“There’s nothing haphazard about an emergency response for storms like Dorian,” she said. “Teams are in place and ready to act. Everyone on the team has been trained and prepared to provide care in some of the worst imaginable situations.”

Federal government responses by teams such as the Disaster Medical Assistance Team are activated at the time of national incidents after states have asked for the help. The response to any disaster always starts at the local, city or county level and — depending on perceived need — works up to state and federal government intervention, according to Harvey.

“We respond to areas where they’ve asked for help, where the infrastructure has been overwhelmed, the medical system has been overwhelmed or if the medical facility has been destroyed,” she said. “We carry mobile hospitals with us. We put them up and they function as a hospital emergency room. They function as surgical suites. We can do just about anything in them.”

 What nurses and other healthcare professionals often don’t realize is that by the time a hurricane or other disaster happens, it’s too late to volunteer for deployment to aid in disaster nursing, according to Harvey.

“Once a disaster is out there and we’re watching it, it’s already too late for nurses to become involved in these agencies because they have to be vetted,” she said. “They have to have background checks. Their licenses have to be checked.”

Disaster nursing starts long before the disaster occurs

While Harvey wasn’t deployed during Dorian, she was with one of the first teams on the ground in Puerto Rico in 2017. The goal, she said, is not to become part of the problem. Well-meaning people want to help after disasters not realizing the scope of issues. And instead of helping, they might get sick or injured and have to be rescued.

Harvey describes her situation in Puerto Rico as austere. There was no food and water. All she had was the food and water she could carry on her back, according to Harvey.

“The main thrust as in any disaster is food, water, shelter and evacuation,” she said. “We have to go back to the lowest level of Maslow’s Hierarchy and think, ‘What do these people need?’”

People sent clothes after Hurricane Maria to help people in Puerto Rico, but it was extremely hot and there was no way to transport the clothes to the communities. What they needed was food and water, according to Harvey.

“In Dorian’s situation, there were already teams on the ground doing pre-planning,” she said. “We know from our training that the ports become blocked, the runways will be damaged, so we’re going to need shorter range planes or helicopters. We have bases all over the world. In this case, the Coast Guard was prepositioned. They are the best equipped of all the agencies to go in and do search-and-rescue and evacuation, as well as medical care.”

Nurses are needed on response teams, according to Harvey. Those who want to get involved in disaster nursing should sign up with an agency, be vetted and go through training long before a disaster hits. They need to be healthy and fit because nothing is simple in a disaster situation.

One example is evacuating a patient from a hospital.

To learn more please visit World Nursing Congress 2020