Paper
Sunday, November 4, 2007
285
Assessing and Promoting Nursing Students' Preparedness for Disasters
Cheryl K. Schmidt, PhD, RN, CNE1, Diane Mancino, EdD, RN, CAE2, Justine Marieva Mize2, and D. Todd Uhlman2. (1) College of Nursing, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA, (2) National Student Nurses' Association, Brooklyn, NY, USA
| Learning Objective #1: Discuss the level of preparedness for disasters reported by members of the National Student Nurses' Association in an online survey. |
| Learning Objective #2: Describe strategies to assist nursing students in preparing for and responding to disasters. |
This presentation will share preliminary findings of a survey conducted through the National Student Nurses’ Association (NSNA) website to determine the state of readiness of NSNA members to prepare for and respond to natural and manmade disasters. There are currently no data on how well nursing students are prepared for personal, family, or community effects of disasters. In 2006, the NSNA established a Disaster Relief Task Force to develop protocols for nursing students to participate in disaster relief through a wide variety of activities, including supervised relief work, volunteer efforts, and coordinating donations for nursing programs affected by disasters. Results of the survey will be used to develop protocols and guide students towards appropriate preparation for disaster response. Examples of possible methods to prepare for disasters include National Incident Management System training, collaborating with the American Red Cross and other disaster relief agencies within communities to develop potential roles for nursing students, and developing plans and supply kits for individuals, families, and nursing programs to survive disasters. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, some nursing students experienced frustration when they gathered donations (e.g. scrubs, stethoscopes, textbooks, personal care supplies), but had no mechanism to deliver them to the affected nursing programs. At the 2006 NSNA MidYear Conference, several nursing programs developed partnerships which would allow them to assist each other with donations and other services in the event that students in these partnership were affected by a disaster. This strategy will continue to grow as more nursing programs form partnerships. Other examples of identified problems will be gleaned from the online survey, and will serve as the foundation for a long-term project to develop strategies to help nursing students prepare for and respond to disasters.