Database of Health Workforce Innovations
678
Meeting the Challenge: First Person Accounts of Florida Nurses’ Courageous Response to the Hurricanes of the Fall of 2004
Lack of staffing, stressful situations, increased medical needs of the population
During the 2004 hurricane reason in Florida, medical services were overwhelmed. Hospitals reached out to Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) personnel to swap out for burnt-out nurses. Additionally they oversaw the evacuation of in-patient services, coordination with EMT's while receiving and triaging patients from within the hospital.
- Solidarity staffing (eg deployments to/from other jurisdictions)
- Task shifting/delegation
- New roles
- Provision of child care services for front-line workers
- Nurse Practitioners*
- Nurses - Licensed Practical
- Nurses - Registered
- Paramedics
- Physicians - Emergency
- Physicians - Intensive Care
- Respiratory Therapists
- Volunteers
Before, during, and after the 2004 hurricane season in Florida
- Critical Care
- Emergency Medical Services
- Urban/Suburban
The rapid deployment of knowledgeable, experienced emergency medical professionals and the lack of barriers in place (interstate licenses, ability to work immediately)
Research Intervention - outcome data available
Blaney-Brouse, D. (2005). Meeting the Challenge: First Person Accounts of Florida Nurses’ Courageous Response to the Hurricanes of the Fall of 2004. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 31(1), 28–33.
Donna Blaney-Brouse
Wentworth-Douglass Hospital
United States
USA