Develop a disaster recovery plan to lessen 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 Vila Health system, city officials, and the disaster relief team.
As you begin to prepare this assessment, you are 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.
Professional Context
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).
This assessment provides an opportunity for you to apply the concepts of emergency preparedness, public
health assessment, triage, management, and surveillance after a disaster. You will also focus on evacuation,
extended displacement periods, and contact tracing based on the disaster scenario provided.

 

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