Nurses as Leaders in Disaster Preparedness and Response—A Call to Action

Abstract

Purpose: To develop a vision for the future of disaster nursing, identify barriers and facilitators to achieving the vision, and develop recommendations for nursing practice, education, policy, and research. Design and Methods: A series of semistructured conference calls were conducted with 14 national subject matter experts to generate relevant concepts regarding national nursing workforce preparedness. An invitational daylong workshop hosted by the Veterans Emergency Management Evaluation Center, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, was held in December 2014 to expand and refine these concepts. Workshop participants included 70 nurses, emergency managers, and a broad range of public health professionals. Conference call notes and audiotapes of the workshop were transcribed and thematic analysis conducted to outline a vision for the future of nursing in disaster preparedness and response, and to articulate an agenda for nursing practice, education, policy, and research to achieve that vision. Findings: The group developed a vision for the future of disaster nursing, and identified current barriers and opportunities to advance professional disaster nursing. A broad array of recommendations for nursing practice, education, policy, and research, as well as implementation challenges, are summarized in this article. Conclusions: This project represents an important step toward enhancing nurses' roles as leaders, educators, responders, policymakers, and researchers in disaster preparedness and response. Nurses and the health and human service organizations that employ them are encouraged to engage in an

Nurses’ disaster preparedness and core competencies in Turkey: a descriptive correlational design

“…In addition to the WHO, the ICN and other organizations, the role of nurses was also emphasized in other publications (Al Thobaity et al 2017;Kalanlar 2018;Park & Kim 2017;Taskiran & Baykal 2017;Usher et al 2015). Veenema et al (2016) also call all nurses to action for disaster preparedness.…”

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“…The Norwegian NF report [11] also shows that a little more, 3,09%, have competence in crises/disaster work from postgraduate education. Whilst there is an apparent need for disaster related topics in Norwegian nurses' education, this need for implementing disaster nursing topics is also proposed by several international nursing groups [10,17,19,27,29,30]. A way forward in Norway could be to introduce Disaster Nursing topics within the Norwegian National Framework so that Nurses in general would have an understanding and background in Disaster Nursing.…”

“…Nurses are the largest workforce in health care and they play an integral role in disaster response and preparedness according to Veenema et al [17]. The goal of disaster nursing 'is ensuring that the highest achievable level of care is delivered through identifying, advocating, and care for all impacted populations throughout all phases of a disaster event, including active participation in all levels of disaster planning and preparedness' [7].…”

“…Therefore, there is a need to identify disaster nursing practices and training programs to prepare nurses [18,19]. To improve nurses as leaders in disaster management there is a need for more research [17]. This is supported by a Norwegian report by Andrews et al [11], where findings highlighted the need for a better framework and outlining the length of the 'following-up' process, resourcing requirements and availability and access of competent staff, trained in leading this work in the aftermath of disaster [11,20].…”

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“…Genuineness, authenticity, and significance of the data were determined through careful collection and inspection. Genuineness indicates validity or whether the document is real and authenticity indicates the reliability or truthfulness of the content in the document (Glass, 1998: Lewenson, 2003. The author, as the sole data collector, maintained control over determining which data to include.…”