Rising to the Challenge

Abstract

Published literature on natural disasters describes lessons learned in preparing for disasters, evacuating patients, and caring for patients in the immediate aftermath. Some disasters, however, require longer-term solutions to best meet the health needs of the community during the recovery from the disaster. This article presents an account of one academic medical center's experience in transforming an existing adult burn intensive care unit into an adult and pediatric burn intensive care unit to meet the needs of a community following a hurricane. The process of training 2 groups of specialty nurses and the success of expanding an adult unit are described.

Health Workforce Strategies in Response to Major Health Events: A Rapid Scoping Review with Lessons Learned for the Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The vast majority of articles that were excluded during screening were anecdotal personal accounts of a health care provider's response to a disaster where no evaluative component was reported. Of the 37 papers included in the analysis, 9 related to infectious disease outbreaks (H1N1 in uenza, Ebola virus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome(SARS)) (Table 1) (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20); 19 related to extreme weather events (hurricanes, typhoons, severe storms) (Table 2) (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39), and 10 related to natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis) (Table 3) (40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49). Twenty-four of the papers (65%) were observational/descriptive papers, seven (19%) were qualitative or mixed-methods case studies, two (5%) reported on survey data, two (5%) on qualitative studies, two (5%) were systematic reviews, and one (2.5%) was a quantitative study.…”