In times of disaster, what is the nurse’s responsibility? The nurse works within their scope of practice in a professional or paraprofessional team that is different from their day-to-day routine. The facility in which the nurse is employed should have a disaster plan in place for emergency preparedness that according to the Joint Commission should be tested and reviewed at least twice a year. However, the nurse’s responsibility is to familiarize themselves with this plan in order to be truly prepared in times of disaster. One powerful story is where nurses and other healthcare workers evacuated an NYC hospital during Hurricane Sandy. These workers evacuated approximately 45 patients, the majority of these patients being critically ill for instance, some of these patients were neonatal patients. In times of disaster, there is an emphasis on working together as a collaborative whole with effective communication to provide quality care in times of disaster. This could be due to power outages from a Hurricane ie Hurricane Sandy, or other natural disasters, or even man-made disasters. Effective communication starts with a chain of command, Hospital Emergency Incident Command System (HEIC), which is a structured role and clear line of authority and accountability that ensures communication works effectively in times of emergency.
In times of disaster, emotions may run high however, there is an importance of one, doing what is right for your patient, and two, doing what will not endanger yourself. For example, a fire erupts in your facility however, the fire is separating two halves of the unit and one of your patients is on the other side of the fire what would you do? Never being in the situation this is hard to determine what should be done. But as we would hope someone on the other side of the fire would help your patient if possible, as you cannot cross that fire as it would endanger yourself. This depicts the two codes of ethics a nurse will face from the ANA code of ethics. Provision 2 states that a nurses’ primary responsibility is to the patient however, Provision 5 states that a nurse owes the same duty to themselves. A nurse may encounter these ethics played into practice outside of work, and the nurse must remember to never endanger themselves for another. That if an area is not deemed safe, the nurse should not engage. As a result, we may see some nurses face ethical dilemmas in times of disaster.
