Question

You are a nurse at a local hospital when there is a tornado that has hit statewide. You are the nurse responsible to triage the victims. What would you find most difficult about this job? Be creative and each answer must be unique. Include the reasons behind your response and how you would deal with having to be in this position. Please answer the questions completely and honestly.

Answer 1

Triaging the patients is challenging in emergency situations because of the overcrowded population, sometimes it may threaten the life of another person as the health care provider cannot take care of both the patient simultaneously. Triaging is very important is such situations.

One of the major steps to implement during the disaster is to determine and recommend for discharge during the emergency situation.

A nurse should use their problem solving and critical thinking skills to decide how to triage the clients during an internal or external disaster. This also determines the associated requirements such as staff assignments, client bed allocation and so on. The nurse should categorize the victims into unstable, stable and ambulatory clients. In descending order the victims can be discharged depending upon the severity of the injury. Unstable clients are the most severe victims who need to be transferred to another facility to the nursing unit. Stable clients’ needs medical and nursing care and need to be monitored before discharge. Ambulatory clients are victims who are self-abled who need very little assistance and can be discharged safely and relocated to a safe place.

Disaster can happen unexpectedly. Preparedness is fundamental to reduce risk. Some of the steps to deal with disaster management in this scenario are

· Prepare an action plan:

Communicate the plan with other members of the team about the plan. Moreover, talk about the potential troubles or situations that may happen

· Shelter locations:

Be aware of the shelter locations and decide the assembly points at least two and final place to reunite if separated. Stay in the middle of the shelter location. Stay as low as possible, hands overhead,

· Be prepared with the first aid kit or emergency cart:

Make sure that every team members are aware of the location of the first lit or emergency cart so the health care worker can grab and go in case of emergencies

· Learn about the common disasters of the area:

Sometimes it may be earthquakes, tornadoes, flood, fire or some other.

· Stay informed:

Keep up-to-date on the hazards of the place through forecasting, government updates etc.

· Get trained

Assign the health care worked with specific duties in advance for disaster management.

Get trained with CPR, First aid or survival classes available in the community. Having trained with these skills may help to save several lives.