Rural and Remote Area Nursing

Running head: HNN 348
Rural and Remote Area Nursing
Assessment Task 1
Name of Student
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HNN 348 1
Rural and Remote Area Nursing
Article 1 Black Saturday: the immediate impact of the February 2009 bushfires in Victoria,
Australia
The reports from 2009 February bushfires in Victoria suggest that around 1000 people
got affected at which 173 people lost their lives and more than 2100 homes damaged. The article
above was conducted to examine the response of the Victorian State Trauma System to February
2009 bushfires(Cameron et al., 2009). The research used a retrospective research design to
determine strategic responses required for treatment of people with bushfire related injuries in
the first three days. The results showed that there were about 414 patients presented to the
emergency departments of which they were triaged for treatment in hospital and treatment
centers(Cameron et al., 2009). About 18 adult patients with severe burns spend the first 49 hours
in theater at which about the rest 390 patients spend 72 hours in the emergency departments
across the state(Cameron et al., 2009). Most of the people were treated in the treatment centers of
which throughout the disaster the referral continued to have maximum surgical patients(Cameron
et al., 2009). From the disaster, many people died and the rest survived with minor injuries.
From that bushfire disaster, there were many impacts on the health of individuals,
families, and communities at large. First, many people were injured of which 173 of them ended
up dead(Bryant et al., 2014). A good number lost their body image due to burns and most of
them have to endure physical pain from burns which affected both their physical and
psychological health(Gibbs et al., 2013). From that disaster, there were short, medium, and long-
term effects that affected the society then and still continue to affects the life of some individual
involved(World Health Organization, 2017). He short term effects included loss of life purpose,
lack of planning and decision making in setting priorities about the continuation of life and
future needs, disorientation, shocked, confused, and uncertainty about the future(World Health

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Organization, 2017). Some lost short-term memories and most including the community had a
vast need regarding both physical and material basic human needs. Due to that event, most
families especially those who lost one or more members of their families had a wide range of
emotions including fear, intense grief, anger, sadness and insecurity about the future(Gibbs et al.,
2013). Other than that, there was a lot of blaming from the community and individuals to those
in power and to government facilities which aggravated more anger and depression(Bryant et al.,
2014). Until to date, there are still victims from the bush fire who are still experiencing vast
health impacts like depression, lost of leisure and recreation, behavioral problems, loss of
network and friendship, disturbing memories, developmental problems in children, and loss of
sensation in direction of life(Bryant et al., 2014).
Article 2 Assessment of the health impacts of the 2011 summer floods in Brisbane
Brisbane experienced summer floods in 2011 which lasted for three consecutive days of
high tide. It is estimated that more than 15,000 properties were completely destroyed and 3,600
homes evacuated during that disaster(van den Honert & McAneney, 2011). Across Queensland,
about 12,000 people were accommodated in Red Cross centers and at which about 3, 570
businesses were destroyed(van den Honert & McAneney, 2011). Altogether over 200,000 people
were affected with a loss of approximately four billion dollars. This flood affected more than
78% of the people living in Queensland at which 33 people died and three went missing till to
date(van den Honert & McAneney, 2011). The above article was conducted to assess the effects
of the flood in Brisbane on individuals and the community. The method of the study consisted of
a community-based survey which focused on impacts majorly per households(Alderman, Turner,
& Tong, 2013). The results showed that there were vast of both mental and physical problems
that the people experienced(Alderman et al., 2013).