Emergency and Disaster Nursing: Principles and Management

Disaster Management Cycle

• Disaster management is a continuous and integrated process of planning, organizing, coordinating, and implementing measures to prevent, reduce, and respond to disasters.
• It involves prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.

Phases of Disaster Management

• Pre-Disaster (Mitigation and Preparedness): taken to reduce human and property losses caused by potential hazards.
• During a Disaster (Disaster Occurrence): taken to ensure that the needs and provisions of victims are met and suffering is minimized.
• Post-Disaster (Response and Recovery): taken to achieve early recovery and rehabilitation of affected communities.

Hazard, Exposure, Vulnerability, and Capacity

• Hazard: a dangerous phenomenon, substance, human activity, or condition that may cause loss of life, injury, or other health impacts.
• Exposure: the degree to which the elements at risk are likely to experience hazard events of different magnitude.
• Vulnerability: the characteristics and circumstances of a community, system, or asset that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard.
• Capacity: the combination of all strengths and resources available within the community, society, or organization that can reduce the level of risk or effects of a disaster.

Disaster

• Disaster: occurs when hazards meet vulnerability, and is calculated as (Vulnerability + Hazard) / Capacity.

Goals of Disaster Management

• Reduce or avoid losses from hazards
• Assure prompt assistance to victims
• Achieve rapid and effective recovery

Principles of Disaster Management

• Disaster management is the responsibility of all spheres of the government
• Disaster management should use resources that exist for day-to-day purpose
• Organizations should function as an extension of their core business
• Individuals are responsible for their own safety
• Disaster management planning should focus on large-scale events
• Disaster management planning should recognize the difference between incidents and disasters
• Disaster management operational arrangements are additional to and do not replace incident management operational arrangements

Mitigation and Preparedness

• Mitigation: minimizing the effects of disaster, eliminating or reducing the probability of disaster occurrence, and reducing the effects of unavoidable disasters.
• Preparedness: planning how to respond, achieving a satisfactory level of readiness, and logistical readiness to deal with disasters.

Response and Recovery

• Response: efforts to minimize the hazards created by disaster, actual implementation of the disaster plan, and providing immediate assistance to maintain life, improve health, and support the morale.
• Recovery: returning the community to normal, rehabilitation of livelihoods, restoration of social and economic activities, and reconstruction of shelter and infrastructure.

What Must be Done to Reduce Risk

• Institutionalize local DRRM office
• Establish early warning system
• Formulate communication protocol
• Formulate evacuation procedures at the community level and establishments
• Organize local DRRMC and define the functional roles and responsibilities of members and task units
• Establish standard operating procedures (SOPs)
• Hazard awareness through community-based trainings and seminars
• Integrate disaster risk reduction into the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) and land use planning
• Integrate hazard, risk, and vulnerability assessment into the development plan
• Cluster approach on recovery program
• Good working relationship with warning agencies and the local media
• Installation of rain gauges on mountain slopes
• Strengthening of the LGU capabilities on disaster management
• Updating hazard profile of all municipalities and analyzing data on human-induced disasters for public safety studies
• Effective flow of communication system to ensure accurate flow of information before, during, and after disaster