Disaster Management: Reflection on Witnessing a Disaster and Professional Role

This paper discusses the importance of disaster management and the role of paramedical health professionals in managing disasters. It reflects on a personal experience of witnessing a disaster and the professional role in disaster response. The paper also highlights the need for medical preparedness and response training for nurses and the importance of collaboration with other stakeholders.

Running head: DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Disaster management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction:
A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or society due to
certain natural and man-made event, which affect the public health and the surrounding
(Boscarino et al., 2015). In the last decade, there has been a 60% increase in the disaster
worldwide where more than two million people lost their lives (Choi & Bae 2015). The disaster
can be man-made or due to natural events and therefore, the management is essential for safe and
healthy public health. Paramedical health professionals play a massive role in managing this
disaster and hence require plan and preparation, adequate equipment for effectively responded to
the situation (Erdelj et al., 2017). Therefore, this paper will illustrate the reflection on the witness
of the disaster and disaster response concerning the professional role in the following paragraphs.
Part 1:
A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or society due to
certain natural and man-made event which affect the public health and the surrounding (Feather,
2017). Globally, there has been a steady increase in the frequency of the disaster that increases
the urgency of the paramedical health professionals (Khalid & Shafia 2015). Since, nurses are
the frontline health professionals in disaster management, the inclusion of the disaster
management skills and respond to disaster training are required for every nursing professionals. I
was witnessed of a disaster event while I was working in the paramedical department in the
morning shift, one of the coworkers showed me a heartbreaking image of the hurricane that was
wreaking havoc in the Torres Strait Island and affected the surrounding community. Roughly,

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about 36 hours later, my supervisor along with my coworkers and me were landed in the
department. The triggering factor of the hurricane was the heavy rain and more than 5000 people
were injured due to the hurricane. Local emergency department manager, Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander community controlled health services government departments of health and
Indigenous affairs, nurse manager, paramedical officers, and 50 other health professionals were
taking part in disaster management with collaborations of other nongovernment organization. My
supervisor made me the commander of the team, my role was collaborating with my coworkers
and ensuring every patient receives patient-centric care. Since it was my first disaster
management process as the paramedical nurse, I was quite paranoid and afraid because during
disaster events the time management is the massive issue since prioritizing every patient become
very difficult. Moreover, the situation of every patient was critical, few injuries are minor but a
considerate number of individuals lost their home. Besides, this hurricane had a psychological
impact on the patient and their mental well-being was destabilized. Therefore, considering the
ethical ground and with my self-awareness, interpersonal skill as well as with the help of my
supervisor, I participated in the disaster management. With ongoing communication with my co-
works and other stakeholders, I participated in the assessment of the need; adjust the resources
and provide empathy and compassion to every patient for their loss. in response, I provide
patient-centric care to every patient, especially patients with the critical health condition. All of
the staffs worked beyond their limit for recovery of the patient and patients were provided with
adequate food, water, and first aid box for recovery. The population predominately consisted of
the older adult and therefore nurses performed wound care, assisted to meet their essential needs.
The close monitoring was done for discriminating who need hospital care and who had minor

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injuries. lastly, critically injured patients were taken to the hospital and hospital had set up
program and funds for individual affected by the hurricane.
Part 2:
With the increasing frequency of the global disaster, the urgency of the disaster
management training in the paramedical setting needs to be reinforced (Boscarino et al., 2014).
When a disaster occurs, health care professionals are the first who responded to the situation for
preventing widespread nature of the disaster (Boscarino et al., 2014). Therefore, Nurses from the
largest group of the health care work form are the front line in disaster management (Bala et al.,
2016). Across the country, paramedical nurses play a critical role in medical preparedness and
response to disaster either natural or manmade (Veenema et al., 2015) . Therefore, nurses should
be equally equipped with knowledge and skills for managing the disaster event, which includes
the pre-service training to professional training (Kim et al.,2017). In the above scenario of the
hurricane, as a paramedical nurse, I participated in the disaster management where I was the
commander and it required my leadership skills, interpersonal skills time management skills with
strong professional ethics. medical preparedness and response were to the core area of disaster
management. As a professional, for medical preparedness I would provide education the disaster
management life-saving skills of first aid, advanced trauma life support classes for emergency
nurses, I would provide triage training of disaster management, knowledge of the location and
equipment along with how to use it, the importance of protective equipment. teamwork is
essential and hence, I would collaborate every member of a team from diverse domain to meet
the need of the disaster incident. For responding to the disaster, I would participate in the disaster
management for critical care of the patient who is affected by the hurricane; with the leadership,
skills I would ensure every patient get patient-centric care and prioritizing every patient. the

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patient would be sent to the first care depending on the critical condition of the patient. In order
to provide emotional support, I would use my nursing skills such as empathy and compassion,
respect to the population. For faster recovery and efficient management of the disaster, I would
contact the nongovernment organizations for a better back up, public health, community services
and funding for recovering the patient. the plan would go on including surveillance of the
recovery of the patient that includes the mental health of the patient and families to be taken care
of.
Since disaster can be natural or manmade and can occur any time, in order to manage the disaster
efficiently, nurses should provide the medical preparedness training and response not only prior
to the management but rather during the education system ((Choi & Bae 2015). In the education
system they should be introduced to the key concept of the disaster management (Al Khalaileh et
al., 2015). Moreover, interpersonal skills and self-awareness skills can be developed for
providing accurate care to the victims of the disaster (Khalid & Shafia 2015). The active
collaboration of the governing bodies with the healthcare professional can make the effective
disaster management (Khalid & Shafia 2015). There are many ethical issues that arise during the
care process and hence professional ethics should be taken into consideration for effectively
conducting the disaster management process with a assistance of skilled health professionals
(Boscarino et al., 2014).
Conclusion:
Thus, it can be concluded that A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a
community or society due to certain natural and man-made event, which affect the public health

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and the surrounding. Nurses from the largest group of the health care work form are the front line
in disaster management. Therefore, nurses should be equally equipped with knowledge and skills
for managing the disaster event, which includes the pre-service training to professional training.
For effective management, education should be given to nurses for disaster management.
Therefore, I would use my medical preparedness skills and response skills along with the nursing
skills in managing the disaster.

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