Disaster Preparedness Plan for Healthcare

This assignment outlines a detailed disaster preparedness plan specifically for healthcare institutions. It delves into potential threats to quality care delivery during disasters, such as inadequate resources, staff shortages, and communication breakdowns. The plan proposes measures to ensure high-quality healthcare amidst emergencies, including updated communication systems, adequate staffing, and sufficient resource allocation. Furthermore, it suggests additional recommendations like public awareness campaigns, regular plan revisions, and leveraging technological advancements for enhanced preparedness.

Running head: DISASTER PLAN
1
Disaster plan
Student’s name
Institution
Professor’s name

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Introduction
A disaster is an unforeseen situation that paralyzes the normal functioning of the society
as a whole thereby leading to great environmental, human and economic damages which in turn
calls for external assistance either nationally or internationally. The disaster may be natural for
example floods, earthquake and disease outbreak or man-made like terrorist bombing and
nuclear attacks. A disaster plan is, therefore, the actual preparedness for the specific disaster, the
responses to the disaster and finally the recovery stage after the disaster strike. Disaster leads to a
fatal situation and so an effective disaster plan must be established so as to manage the impact of
the disaster. In the current century, disaster preparedness awareness is being done to ensure
efficiency. For this reason as nurse manager, you have to ensure that all the staff members are
well educated and trained so that they know what is expected of them when disaster strikes (Jose,
M. M., & Dufrene, C. ., 2014). There is the need for evaluation of risk related to the occurrence
if a given disaster and the potential effects associated with it.
Who activates the plan?
The government calls for a state of emergency which is then reported to the relevant
organizations like the Red Cross team and the hospitals. The plan is activated by the disaster plan
director or the plan activation committee. Any person within the plan activation committee can
request activation by contacting the disaster plan director or other members of the disaster plan
committee.
How is the plan activated?
If there seems a possibility of a disaster then a conference call should be made in less than
ninety-six hours before its occurrence so as to alert the members to take effective initiatives on

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the disaster. On the other hand, if the disaster occurs without notice then all the committee
members having primary and secondary responsibilities within the plan work hand in hand to
ensure the plan is effected immediately as earlier proposed. The staff required is then contacted
by phone or email for the activation of the plan.
What is involved?
The unit planning team consists of staff members who will then perform their responsibilities as
assigned in the plan. The nurse manager will then evaluate the disaster plan by ensuring the
following steps; assessing the risk exposure and the extent of damages, ensuring the availability
of the resources that are required for the effectiveness of the plan, engaging the emergency
public services that may be of help to the situation, establish actions to protect lives of
individuals and reduce the impact of the incident for example evacuation in case of nuclear
bombing or lockdown in case of terrorist attack, training and educating personnel so that they
become aware of their individual roles and then finally exercise your plan so as to know its
effectiveness.
Where is the command center located?
The command center is the location from which the emergency response team operates and gets
appropriate resources to help in the emergency condition. The incident command center should
be located within the premises of the emergency. In cases where the premises of the emergency
are not safe then it should be located in the next building within the emergency area and if the
whole premise of the emergency is not safe then it will be set in an outdoor area central to the
place which is safe. It remains operational until the incident commander calls off the emergency.
How is the plan communicated to the staff?

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The crisis communication team has the role to communicate the members in case of an
emergency being part of the disaster plan. They establish, maintain and make sure the crisis
communication plan is effective. They ensure that they have all the contact information of all the
staff in a central place and use the recommended method of communication in case of an
emergency to coordinate with the team members.
How is the plan called off and debriefed afterward?
The incident commander calls off the disaster plan after the emergency through a conference
call. Debriefing is a very critical stage after the occurrence of a disaster since it is necessary to
the mental health and wellbeing of the affected individuals. For that reason the critical incident
stress management team and critical incident stress debriefing team come in to perform their
responsibility to guide and counsel so as to help them cope up with the impact of the disaster
(Schonfeld, D. J., Demaria, T., COUNCIL, D. P. A., & Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of
Child and Family Health. ., 2015).
What are the potential threats to quality care delivery in a disaster?
 Inadequate resources- in case of a disaster that is very fatal the resources might not be
enough for all the affected individuals in case they are very many or the necessary
resources required to treat them may be missing.

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 Availability of the staff- the nurses who should be delivering the health services may be
limited and the affected patients being many hence poor quality services in the rush to
rescuing all of them.
 Poor communication system- if there is poor communication system then most staffs will
not be updated in the occurrence of an emergency hence few will avail themselves to
help.
What measures are implemented in the plan to ensure quality health care is administered?
 Updated communication system- this will ensure all the staff is updated when an
emergency occurs and they will avail themselves to carry on with their respective
responsibilities.
 Hiring adequate staff- the human resource manager should ensure all the staffs required
like the critical incident stress debriefing is hired so as to enhance the plan.
 Adequate resources- they should ensure adequate resources depending on the disaster
that is prone to that area and even other disasters.
Are there any suggestions you might add to the plan?
a) Create awareness and educate the society as a whole
In case of an emergency the neighbors are the closest people and so they can come to your rescue
before the emergency team arrives.it is therefore imperative to let them know how important
they are to each other and the necessary actions they can take in case the disaster occurs.
b) Revisit the plan occasionally

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You should not prepare once and forget about it. You need to revisit and update others
occasionally.
c) Making use of the technological advancement
You need to make use of the new technology systems to update people more about the disaster
plan.it will make it more efficient and effective.
Conclusion
A disaster plan is very significant in the society and it helps reduce the impact of the disaster in
its occurrence. Organizations and the government together with the people should work hand in
hand to ensure it is effective so as to save lives and reduce its impact.

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Bibliography
Jose, M. M., & Dufrene, C. (2014). Educational competencies and technologies for disaster preparedness
in undergraduate nursing education: An integrative review. Nurse education today, 34(4), 543-
551.
Schonfeld, D. J., Demaria, T., COUNCIL, D. P. A., & Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and
Family Health. (2015). . Supporting the grieving child and family.

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