Exploring the Demands on Nurses Working in Health Care Facilities During a Large-Scale Natural Disaster

Abstract

Creative Commons CC-BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). Article BackgroundNo country is truly exempt from a disaster. History has already provided examples of what can happen to a community in the event of a large-scale natural disaster. Factors such as population growth and urban development are increasing the risk faced by populations worldwide. Climate change will increase the incidence, duration, and severity of hazards of meteorological origin. The risk of disaster and thus the human consequences is increasing. When disaster strikes, health care organizations, and particularly their nursing and medical staff, are a critical element in any disaster response. They provide an essential service to any community, and hospitals and emergency departments (EDs) are often the first place of call for people affected by any type of emergency. The nursing workforce makes up a large part of any health care facility and organization, and is expected to be able to adapt and function competently. In addition, nurses may have to adapt at a moment's notice to events that occur with little or no warning, and they may be called upon to function effectively in challenging circumstances for periods of weeks or months and in contexts where their own community has been affected. The nature, extent, and speed of recovery in areas impacted by adverse events such as natural disasters is thus influenced by the adaptive capacity and resilience of nurses and the health care organizations they represent.The aim of the integrative review was to provide an evidence-based approach and re-conceptualization of ideas and recommendations for natural disaster preparation, preparedness, and competencies for nurses using an ecological 655587S GOXXX10.1177/2158244016655587SAGE OpenScrymgeour et al. AbstractNurses are pivotal to an effective societal response to a range of critical events, including disasters. This presents nurses with many significant and complex challenges that require them to function effectively under highly challenging and stressful circumstances and often for prolonged periods of time. The exponential growth in the number of disasters means that knowledge of disaster preparedness and how this knowledge can be implemented to facilitate the development of resilient and adaptive nurses and health care organizations represents an important adjunct to nurse education, policy development, and research considerations. Although this topic has and continues to attract attention in the literature, a lack of systematic understanding of the contingencies makes it difficult to clearly differentiate what is known and what gaps remain in this literature. Providing a sound footing for future research c...

Nurses working in healthcare facilities during natural disasters: a qualitative enquiry

“…Organizational influences had an overall negative influence on their ability to cope with the emotional impact of the event and family and for some, their subsequent support, had a positive one once they knew their family were safe. These interdependent characteristics, cultural influences and distributed decision-making (Scrymgeour et al 2016) played a significant role on well-being and performance in sustaining their resilience and adaptive capacity whilst working under challenging and dynamic circumstances, very different to their usual highly demanding roles within the healthcare sector.…”

“…They reflected about themselves, team and family, on one hand embracing their experiences whilst ability to 'toughing it out' and on the other with growing frustration and distrust saw 'top-down' organizationally driven decisions as disconnects with the current reality. This lack of trust to distributed decision-making (Paton & Allen 2013;Scrymgeour et al 2016) may indicate deeper issues of organizational culture and the importance of strong organizational systems and practices and education to facilitate stronger relationships and cohesion (Paton et al 2017).…”

“…Nurses form the largest group of healthcare workers in any inpatient healthcare facility (Scrymgeour et al 2016). It is also likely that this group will be professionally and personally impacted to the highest degree.…”

“…The demands facing nurses working during a disaster have often been hidden within the collective accounts of healthcare workers' experiences (Scrymgeour et al 2016). Researching event characteristics (Paton et al 2017) and the specific demands on a nursing workforce during a large-scale disaster is necessary to provide useful schema to the ever-growing knowledge bank known as organizational preparedness, adaptive capacity and resilience.…”

Motivación y valores relativos al trabajo en bomberos voluntarios y remunerados argentinos

“…En este caso, los motivos de la acción se vinculan con vivencias de identificación en relación a valores como el desarrollo personal competente y autónomo, y el deseo de ser útil para una comunidad y, de esa forma, a través del trabajo mejorar el bienestar social (Gagné & Deci, 2005;Moreno & Marcaccio, 2012). Si se considera entonces la importancia motivacional y de valores humanos vinculados al bienestar social de las comunidades que hacen al contexto de la labor bomberil, dichos resultados tendrían implicancias materializadas en la organización de espacios de desarrollo social, i.e., la creación de comedores comunitarios, la formación de brigadas infantiles para la detección y concientización acerca de riesgos cotidianos del hogar, la escuela y la comunidad, centros de alfabetización, de atención a adultos mayores, jubilados y pensionados, talleres y fundaciones de promoción de la inserción social, la solidaridad, y la resiliencia comunitaria (Alchourrón de Paladini, Daverio, Moreno, & Piattini-Montero, 2011;Melillo, 2011;Ramirez et al, 2013;Scrymgeour, Smith, & Paton, 2016) de niños en situación de riesgo psicosocial.…”