Essay about Emergency Preparedness

This is a major hazard because if the environment in a nursing home is unclean this can lead to spreading diseases, infections and causes the environment to start to smell and that could add up to the patients illness.

For those that receive care a hazard for an elderly person could be that they cannot see

As we know, older residents are susceptible to infections because of multi-morbidity, greater severity of illness, functional impairment, cognitive impairment, incontinence, and the presence of frequent short-term and long-term indwelling device use such as urinary catheters and feeding tubes. For infection prevention control program, an effective infection prevention program includes a method of surveillance for infections and antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, an outbreak control plan for epidemics, isolation and standard precautions, hand hygiene, staff education, an employee health program, a resident health program, policy formation and periodic review with audits, and a policy

As  many  of  the service  users  within  the  hospital  may  already  be  in  a  vulnerable  state,  the  exposure  to  smoke may worsen  their  condition if not addressed quickly. Some of the effects of smoke exposure to a service user  already  suffering  from  respiratory  problems  can  include  the  inability  to  breathe  normally, excessive  cough  with  or  without  mucus,  discomfort  in  the  chest  and  wheezing  or  shortness  of breath.  All  problems  that can lead to more serious problems if not looked at and fixed as quickly as possible. Another problem that can occur during the case of a fire, can include a safety breach. When the fire alarm  is  set  off  inside  the  hospital  it  is  important  to  follow  the  procedure  and  get  everybody  to

Tragic events that cause damage to property and life may destroy the social, cultural and economic life of a community. Communities must be engaged in the various phases from prevention to recovery to build disaster resilient communities. In order to do this, there must be a disaster preparedness plan in place that involves multiple people in various roles.

This chapter provides an overview that describes the basic types of hazards threatening the United States and provides definitions for some basic terms such as hazards, emergencies, and disasters. The chapter also provides a brief history of emergency management in the federal government and a general description of the current emergency management system—including the basic functions performed by local emergency managers. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the all-hazards approach and its implications for local emergency management.

With the population of adults 65 and over steadily climbing, medical professionals and the healthcare system are struggling to keep up. One major issue concerning the healthcare system is that it is not set up properly provide care for these older adults. The physicians today, who regularly see patients, focus mainly has been; diagnose—usually in a 15-20 minute office visit, treat, and cure. Many of these senior citizens have multiple chronic illnesses or diseases, which require time to manage and treat. The problem is that they may not be able to explain what the real problem to a doctor in that time.

In “Wither the Emergency Manager,” Niel R. Britton comments on Drabek's “Human Responses to disaster: An Inventory of Sociological Findings.” Britton describes six positive and negative issues in emergency management as it is today. In this paper, we will discuss the implications on emergency management as a field and on the individual manager.

The purpose of the Emergency Preparedness Plan is to save lives and prevent injuries in case of emergencies such as nuclear attack, fire, natural disaster, civil disorder or other, and provide the necessary best practices to ensure all possible and relevant forms of communicating with our faculty, staff, students, and parents. Mrs. Patricia Harris of the International Studies Elementary Charter School was interviewed about the International Studies Elementary Charter School’s Emergency Management Plan and the role of the school counselor during emergencies. Surprisingly, the school counselor does not play as important of a role than one would have thought. Although, the counselor does serve as one of the Designated School Emergency Team Members, some the tasks that would seem likely the counselor would perform, are performed by other administrators. Tasks such as talking to parents or being there for the students are performed by the principal while the school counselor is delegated to direct traffic. Based on the Emergency Management Plan, it would seem that the school counselor’s role is still not clearly understood. With all the expertise that counselors can bring to a crisis situation, it’s disappointing that counselors are assigned such a miniscule task as delegating traffic. Counselor Harris did discuss the Dougherty County School System’s Crisis Team. That team is

The article demonstrates studies that show how older patients with asthma represent the second highest age group that are hospitalized for asthma, have higher healthcare cost, and represents more that 50% of all asthma-related deaths. The explanation for why there is such a low recognition of asthma in older patients is due to a number of factors such as health care workers misdiagnosing the major symptoms of asthma with common diseases in older adults, older patients not seeking medical attention, not disclosing asthma symptoms due to cognitive impairment, fear of illness and death, financial unstable, and confusing symptoms as normal part of aging. Another major factor is the lack of use of spirometer in older patients; spirometer is a very helpful tool in diagnosing and managing asthma. The final part of the article focuses on what we can do to help the situation. First it recommends that nurses become knowledgeable about asthma in older patients, by doing so nurses will be better equipped to

Since seniors often have immune systems that are not as strong as they were in younger years, it is important to take precautions to avoid sickness. Preventing sickness by washing hands, getting a flu shot each year, seeing the dentist to prevent oral infections, and receiving a pneumonia vaccine are all ways to lessen the chances of developing lung disease.

Data obtained by assessing social vulnerability must be implemented within each phase of the emergency management process; mitigation, response, and recovery. First, to effectively respond and recover from incidents emergency management agencies must concentrate on the mitigation phase to prevent incidents from happening in the first place. This is achieved through a thorough hazard/vulnerability analysis (HVA). This type of analysis assesses the risk of physical, economic, and social vulnerability within all communities of a given jurisdiction (Lindell et al., 2006, p. 165). Additionally, the basis of the HVA allows emergency managers to effectively plan for disaster by creating pre-planned responses to disasters (rather than improvised response) and staging resources to locations with the highest probability of risk; ultimately contributing to the mitigation and response phases.

I enjoyed reading your post on the assessment of building health information and the choice of risk assessment tool. According to Wu and Orlando (2015), health risk assessments provide an opportunity to emphasize health promotion and disease prevention for individuals and populations at large. Sullivan (2012) stated that numerous screening instruments have been developed to detect common geriatric problems. The Katz Index of activities of daily living (ADLs) and Lawton instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) scale are examples of tools used to screen a patient’s functional ability. The Katz Index addresses specific ADLs, such as bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, continence, and feeding. The Lawton Scale scores points on functionality

In less than two decades, social media has revolutionized modern communication and information sharing. What began as a simple form of social networking has turned into innumerable platforms for people around the globe to share ideas, create and share businesses, promote brands, read news from various sources, as well as share and find vast amounts of information, among many other uses. Thus, with a few clicks of a button, people are now able to interact with someone on the other side of the world. The capabilities created through social media’s many uses have forever changed global politics, business, and interpersonal communication.

Director John Simpson has stated that his department functions by operationalizing risk management. Operationalizing risk management relies on an ever-evolving process that incorporates feedback loops through a system of monitoring and evaluation. Risk management takes a proactive instead of reactive approach by classifying existing and potential risks and then developing interventions to mitigate those risks before a disaster strikes (Module 11). Measuring vulnerability and resilience to potential risks, permits a community to be proactive. There is a direct correlation between improved resiliency and improved outcomes after a risk becomes a reality (McEntire et. al, 2002).