Disaster Management: Situational Analysis for Paramedical Students

This study discusses a situational analysis of a car crash in a shopping mall that caused deaths and injuries. It describes the response of the emergency medical team and strategies for mass casualty rescue. The study also includes a disaster management plan and recommendations for emergency care. The role of health professionals in such scenarios is also discussed.

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Executive Summary
The study has discussed a situational analysis for the paramedical students. A car crashed into
a shopping mall causing the death of three people and injury of many. The study has
described that the paramedical emergency team rushed to the spot to provide sufficient
treatment to the ailing. The capability of the emergency medical team was not satisfactory as
they delayed in the treatment process. Various strategies plan to rescue form mass casualty
has been described in the study along with some related intervention for the entire emergency
rescue process.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................1
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Part 1 Reflective writing............................................................................................................3
Describing the Issue...............................................................................................................3
1.2Rationale...........................................................................................................................4
2.The Type and extent of the issue.............................................................................................4
2.1Environmental analysis approach to the topic..................................................................4
3.0Response to questions...........................................................................................................5
3.1 Participation of health professionals in the scenario........................................................5
3.2 The professional response................................................................................................6
4.Conclusion...............................................................................................................................6
5.Disaster management plan......................................................................................................6
Reference list..............................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
The incident of mass casualty has been described in the study. The incident happened to the
paramedical students. This is a situational analysis that tests the capability of the students to
handle these situations. The situation would enable paramedical students to handle critical
situations under severe circumstances. The study will be developed by defining the ultimate
issue. A car crash happened in a shopping who killed around the people causing injury of
many. Chaos reigned everywhere. Thus, it was the duty of the paramedical students to bring
the situation under control. It was a testing time for the paramedical students. The test would
revolve out the capability of the students to handle such emergency and violent situation. The
rationale of the study will describe the importance of the practice al learning process in mass
casualty. The second part of the study has identified the environmental scan planning
approach. The third part of the study will analyse the role of health professionals during the
mass casualty. The concluding part of the study will summarise the whole study and will
outline an overall recommendation on emergency care for mass casualty. Hence, a strategic
plan would be described to mitigate the medical risk factors on the mass casualty. The mock
mass casualty incident would be helpful for the paramedical students to organise mass care
programs properly.
Part 1 Reflective writing
Describing the Issue
The mass casualty issue has been identified in this study. A car crashed into the shopping
mall causing deaths of 3 and injury of many. The car driver was not physically fit enough as
he was suffering from diabetic syndrome. It may be the cause that the driver of the car was
not in his sense and lost control over the car. Moreover, this can also be a minor terrorist
attack where the terrorists intentionally invaded the shopping mall to kill several people and
create terror all around. The paramedic team was quite responsive to the issue. They rushed
to the spot and tried to secure the victims as much as possible. The work process of the
emergency response team was not as easy as there was no power in that building. They used
torchlight for their rescue venture. I saw the ill-fated situation of the ailing who were stuck in
the inside the shopping. The car crash not only made severe damage to life but also to
property as well.
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1.2Rationale
It was power cut when the emergency team came into the spot. They used torchlight for the
venture. Moreover, they tried to bring the power back in order to rescue the ailing properly.
The evacuation team reached the spot and tried to evacuate the people who were stuck in the
mall. The code of the evacuation team was red and yellow that they used to evacuate the
injured people. Being a part of the paramedical team, I followed each of the actions of the
response team and tried to learn from their rescue activities. The emergency paramedical
team followed the triad process to provide treatment to the victims due to the existence of a
large number of casualties (Brindley, 2018). The paramedical teams developed two tents on
the field for the deceased and injured people. The red tent was developed for the deceased
people, and the injured people were transferred to the yellow tents (Gholipour Moghaddam et
al., 2014).
All the victims were shocked by the sudden incident. Moreover, some of them went to a
traumatised situation. Additionally, the situation of the deceased people was declining.
However, it is notable that the emergency rescue team took a good amount of time for the
overall process. This caused the delay in emergency quality care for the ailing. I observed the
delay in the treatment. The emergency first aid was provided to the injured people way later
than the real incident. According to the personnel of the emergency medical team, the
fractured legs of the people were plastered quickly and treatment process was provided to
each of the victims. I think the emergency aid can be provided earlier for a better outcome.
2. The Type and extent of the issue
2.1Environmental analysis approach to the topic
The Current plan
Internal stakeholders: The disaster that occurred was mainly a man-made disaster. The
Internal stakeholders of the disasters were the victims who suffered due to the disaster
(Preston, Larkins, Taylor & Judd, 2016). The victims were mainly trapped in the site of the
incident and had to be rescued by the paramedic team.
External stakeholders: The external stakeholders are considered as the stakeholders who
escaped from the site of the disaster. The external stakeholders may face mental trauma and
minor injuries (Preston, Larkins, Taylor & Judd, 2016). The internal stakeholders are more
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important and priority to rescue should be given to the internal stakeholders. The primary
treatments of the external stakeholders were done properly.
Strategic planning from a future viewpoint
There was a chaotic situation in the disaster management site. Victims were traumatised and
were running all over the disaster site. There was a lack of proper management in the outside
part of the building. It is seen that victims are stuck inside the building. Some improvement in
the rescue plan is required. It is seen that less amount of personals were present in the disaster
management site. Due to lack of personnel's the whole process of rescuing the victims from
the building was getting delayed. If there was sufficient number of personnel's then the rescue
operation would have been done in a systematic manner (Franks & Seaton, 2017). It was seen
that there was a lack of communication among the team members. The tents set up were
delayed that caused confusion and trauma among the victims. Through proper
communication and teamwork, the paramedic team will be able to mitigate this kind of
disaster in a systematic way in the future .
3.0 Response to questions
3.1 Participation of health professionals in the scenario
The scenario depicts a disaster situation that needs proper mitigation strategies. The health
professionals play a pivotal role in this kind of disaster scenario (Lamelas, 2017). In this case,
the victims of the disaster are the individuals who escaped from the accident. There is a huge
amount of psychological trauma among the individuals who have escaped from the accident.
As I have some experience in the public health domain, I could help to analyse the situation
in a proper manner. In this case, the car crashed inside a shopping mall killing three
individuals and severely injuring eight persons. The injured individuals are in a state of
mental and physical shock. As a health professional my prime responsibility is to take the
injured person from the site of the accident to a safe location. The injured individuals were
carried safely to the tent and counselling was done to calm their nerves. The primary
treatment was initiated. Mainly there were issues of fractures to the legs and shoulders of the
individuals. The primary medicines were provided to ease the pain of the patient. Plaster was
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done to the legs and shoulders of the individuals and then the patients were transferred to the
nearest hospital by the paramedic team.
3.2 The professional response
The health professionals have a major role to play during the occurrence of any disaster. They
should be able to perform the situational analysis in a proper way (Jackson, 2017). Analysis
of the scenario will help the health professionals to implement the rescue plan in a proper
manner. At the site of the disaster, the victims with the most injuries should be separated and
attended with proper focus (Greiner, 2018). The response should be done according to the
demand of the situation. The rescue at the disaster management site was not managed in a
systematic way. The delegation of the work among the paramedic team was not properly
done. There should have been at least one person outside the building whose prime
responsibility would be to calm the nerves of the traumatised persons (Hamdami Nejad et al.,
2014). Later it is seen that some of the paramedic staffs came out of the building and tried to
calm the nerves of the victims. Providing first aid to the victims is one of the essential duties
of the health professionals. In this case, it is seen that the less injured individuals were not
properly provided with the first aid. They had to wait outside the building for a long time
before getting attendance from the paramedic persons. The paramedic team need to focus on
the implementation part rather than discussion of the management plan.
4. Conclusion
The study presents a set of simulated events that provide real-life experience. A car crash
occurred in a shopping mall taking 3 lives and injuring 8 individuals. The paramedic team
arrived at the situation and the health professional with the implementation of the strategic
plan tried to mitigate the situation. There was some lacuna in the communication and
coordination of the paramedic team during mitigation of the disaster. In spite of that through
this study, I comprehended the disaster management plan in a proper manner.
5. Disaster management plan
The disaster management plan comprises of the following components.
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Fig: Disaster management cycle, Source: Google
Preparation: The preparatory stage is essential as it comprises of the primary assessment. If
the preparation is done in a proper manner then the next phase can be implemented in a
systematic way (Yadav, Preetham & Anchalia, 2016).
Response: After the preparatory stage comes the response stage. In the response stage, the
situational analysis is the prime component. The situational analysis should be done properly
to study the effects of the disaster (Gunay, 2017). Synchronizing with the preparation the
response should be done by the disaster management team.
Restoration: After the primary response stage the next step is the restoration. In this phase
restoration and recovery of the materials due to the disaster is done in a proper and systematic
manner (Rheem, Choi, Kwak & Oh, 2016).
Mitigation: The mitigation part includes the learning from the operation. After the recovery
and the restoration is done thorough review and analysis improvement plan should be
formulated. This improvement plan should be implemented to mitigate the disaster (Kwak,
Seo, Ko & Choi, 2017).
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