Qlt4 Task 4

WESTERN GOVENOR’S UNIVERSITY
Community and Health Nursing
Task 4 Marie Lickliter
08/07/2013

The role of the major public health personnel includes assessing the immediate health needs and identifying the potential risks in the community. There are several team members who work together to accomplish this common goal. Team members provide epidemiology, environmental, medication services, food delivery, and sanitation services.
The public health nurse’s role is to assess the immediate community health needs, provides education, and information to prevent secondary conditions like food poisoning. The public health nurse’s role in the simulation was as a liaison for a patient in acute distress. She called the search and rescue team to quickly transport the patient to an operating hospital. She also assisted an asthma patient use a nebulizer while the electricity was still out. The nurse also orchestrated for medication refills, clean water for baby formula, and arranging transfers. The nurse also participated in preventive care by
providing access to clean water, monitoring sanitation/sewage disposal, and preventing food borne illness.
There are five basic components to the incidental command structure, which are command, planning, operations, logistics, and finance administration (Incident Command Structure, 2011).
The person who is the liaison between every group is the command. The command personal maintains communication with every team member to ensure necessary tasks are completed. The planning personal would map out the areas of severe need and relay that information to logistics to allow the most critical areas to be serviced first. The logistics personal help allocate volunteers and team members to the necessary areas of need. Logistics would also help secure materials, like port potties for sanitation. The finance administration personal would determine what funds they were able to allocate to different needs. They would be able to assess which expense would come first, which would be shelter for victims, clean drinking water, and food
resources.
The community health nurse must follow a chain a command. The community health nurse is part of the public health group, which is directed by the medical health director. The medical health director reports to the operations chief. The operations chief reports to the emergency incident commander. The chain of command decreases confusion because every person knows their specific role and function. The chain of command also allows for accurate and timely information to be released.
There are many resources available to the community health nurse for incidents that are outside of her scope of practice. For example, the community needed adequate sanitation services, so she called Public Works to deliver port potties for sewage control. She could also call on social workers and members of the clergy to help the community cope with the stress associated with the disaster. The community nurse could also call on local veterinary clinics or animal shelters to help care for the community’s pets. The nurse can also call on other healthcare workers, like a physician to help treat the patient, especially if the care is out of her scope of practice.
As the nurse completes door to door interviews, she will be able to assess the needs of each individual household. In the simulation the nurse identifies the need for environmental services to inspect a chemical spill. She also met a Spanish speaking family that needed information in Spanish. The community nurse printed handouts in Spanish to give to the family. She also checked a man’s blood pressure because he was concerned it would be high. The nurse gave the man options to pick up his blood pressure medication and return it to him, or he could accompany her to the shelter to get his medication. She also offered transport to a young mother and her mother in law. The young mother declined to stay at the shelter, so the nurse provided her with diapers and clean water to make formula with. The door to door assessment would also help identify anyone who was having difficulty coping with the stress associated with the disaster and it would help identify any mentally ill community members that may need assistance.
The community health nurse used several techniques to help calm the fears of the community. First she spoke in a calm respectful manner to the public. She also offered choices by letting people remain in their homes, but still provided necessities like clean drinking water. She also used a holistic approach to care for the community members by offering support and comfort. She also gave a stuffed animal to children to help provide a sense of comfort.
When a natural disaster the size of Hurricane Katrina occurs, it is necessary to mobilize as many health professionals as possible. A school nurse could be asked to help assess and treat children. Specialized nurses could also be mobilized to help. Dialysis nurses could help identify patients that would need to be moved immediately for dialysis. Pediatric and NICU nurses could assist with treating and triaging children. Case management workers could be used to identify resources and possible places to secure supplies. Nursing students and ancillary staff could be utilized to monitor patient’s vital signs and to take demographic information. Physicians could also be utilized to treat patients. Respiratory therapy could conduct respiratory assessments and determine their level of severity. Works Cited
Office of Surgeon General. (2004). Retrieved August 7, 2013, from US Public Health Service: www.ccrf.hhs.gov/ccrf/factsheets/apht
Incident Command Structure. (2011). Retrieved August 7, 2013, from NCBI: ww.ncbi.nim.nih.gov
Olson, L. D., Scheller, S., & Johnson, L. (2006). Disaster in Franklin County . Retrieved August 7, 2013, from Centers for Public Health Education and Outreach: ustar.ahc.umn.edu/cpheo/catalog/main.cfm?event_id+4516&activity_id=7594