Disaster Recovery

Develop a disaster recovery plan to reduce health disparities and improve access to community services after a disaster. Then develop and record a 10–12 slide presentation (please refer to the PowerPoint tutorial) of the plan with audio and speaker notes for the local system, city officials, and the disaster relief team.

Nurses perform a variety of roles and their responsibilities as health care providers extend to the community. The decisions we make daily and in times of crisis often involve the balancing of human rights with medical necessities, equitable access to services, legal and ethical mandates, and financial constraints. In the event of a major accident or natural disaster, many issues can complicate decisions concerning the needs of an individual or group, including understanding and upholding rights and desires, mediating conflict, and applying established ethical and legal standards of nursing care. As a nurse, you must be knowledgeable about disaster preparedness and recovery to safeguard those in your care. As an advocate, you are also accountable for promoting equitable services and quality care for the diverse community.

Nurses work alongside first responders, other professionals, volunteers, and the health department to safeguard the community. Some concerns during a disaster and recovery period include the possibility of death and infectious disease due to debris and/or contamination of the water, air, food supply, or environment. Various degrees of injury may also occur during disasters, terrorism, and violent conflicts.

To maximize survival, first responders must use a triage system to assign victims according to the severity of their condition/prognosis in order to allocate equitable resources and provide treatment. During infectious disease outbreaks, triage does not take the place of routine clinical triage.

Trace-mapping becomes an important step to interrupting the spread of all infectious diseases to prevent or curtail morbidity and mortality in the community. A vital step in trace-mapping is the identification of the infectious individual or group and isolating or quarantining them. During the trace-mapping process, these individuals are interviewed to identify those who have had close contact with them. Contacts are notified of their potential exposure, testing referrals become paramount, and individuals are connected with appropriate services they might need during the self-quarantine period (CDC, 2020).

An example of such disaster is the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. People who had contact with someone who were in contact with the COVID-19 virus were encouraged to stay home and maintain social distance (at least 6 feet) from others until 14 days after their last exposure to a person with COVID-19. Contacts were required to monitor themselves by checking their temperature twice daily and watching for symptoms of COVID-19 (CDC, 2020). Local, state, and health department guidelines were essential in establishing the recovery phase. Triage Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in the case of COVID-19 focused on inpatient and outpatient health care facilities that would be receiving, or preparing to receive, suspected, or confirmed COVID- 19 victims. Controlling droplet transmission through hand washing, social distancing, self-quarantine, PPE, installing barriers, education, and standardized triage algorithm/questionnaires became essential to the triage system (CDC, 2020; WHO, 2020).

When disaster strikes, community members must be protected. A comprehensive recovery plan, guided by the MAP-IT (Mobilize, Assess, Plan, Implement, Track) framework, is essential to help ensure everyone’s safety. The unique needs of residents must be assessed to reduce health disparities and improve access to equitable services after a disaster. Recovery efforts depend on the appropriateness of the plan, the extent to which key stakeholders have been prepared, the quality of the trace-mapping, and the allocation of available resources. In a time of cost containment, when personnel and resources may be limited, the needs of residents must be weighed carefully against available resources.

In this assessment, you will assume the role of the senior nurse at a regional hospital who has been assigned to develop a disaster recovery plan for the community using MAP-IT and trace-mapping, which you will present to city officials and the disaster relief team.

Review the full scenario and associated data in the resource.

You are also encouraged to complete the Disaster Preparedness and Management activity. The information gained from completing this activity will help you succeed with the assessment as you think through key issues in disaster preparedness and management in the community or workplace. Completing activities is also a way to demonstrate engagement.

Begin thinking about:

Community needs.

Resources, personnel, budget, and community makeup.

People accountable for implementation of the disaster recovery plan.

Healthy People 2020 goals and 2030 objectives.

A timeline for the recovery effort.

You may also wish to:

Review the MAP-IT (Mobilize, Assess, Plan, Implement, Track) framework, which you will use to guide the development of your plan:

Mobilize collaborative partners.

Assess community needs.

• Plan to lessen health disparities and improve access to services.
• Implement a plan to reach Healthy People 2020 goals or 2030 objectives.
• Track community progress.
• Review the assessment instructions and scoring guide to ensure that you understand the work you will be asked to complete.
• Note: Every 10 years, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion release information on health indicators, public health issues, and current trends. At the end of 2020, Healthy People 2030 was released to provide information for the next 10 years. Healthy People 2030 provides the most updated content when it comes to prioritizing public health issues; however, there are historical contents that offer a better understanding of some topics. Disaster preparedness is addressed in Healthy People 2030, but a more robust understanding of MAP-IT, triage, and recovery efforts is found in Healthy People 2020. For this reason, you will find references to both Healthy People 2020 and Healthy People 2030 in this course.

Note: As you revise your writing, check out the resources listed on the Writing Center’s  page.