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In This Chapter
The American Red Cross: Volunteering in Times of Disasters
Leveraging Disaster Recovery for Community Preparedness
Disaster Response: Helping Those Who Help Others
Preparing for Disasters and Public Health Emergencies
Learning Lessons From COVID-19: Upstream Fishing to Mend Downstream Implications
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This chapter considers how nursing can work to decrease the inequitable outcomes related to social determinants of health, structural racism, and environmental injustices that result from past and future disasters and public health emergencies. Nurses have used their keen assessment skills for centuries to support communities devastated by natural disasters. It is now time to elevate nursing education and continuing education to include substantive trainings focusing on disaster preparedness. As global warming continues to affect the quality and quantity of natural disasters, more nurses will need to be ready to provide care in non-clinical environments. Furthermore, the aid and care provided by these nurses will need to be guided by the competency and awareness of built environments that may perpetuate poor outcomes, and appropriate solutions will need to be created to foster health equity.
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Consider the following questions as you read the essays about health equity and preparing for disasters and public health emergencies:
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How can nurses advocate for those who have experienced disasters and public health emergencies?
With regards to being exposed to trauma, how can nurses protect their mental well-being?
In what ways can nurses contribute to stabilizing communities that have experienced disasters and public health emergencies?
What are characteristics of a community that may make its outcomes worse than others?
How can the management of modern-day disasters and public health be guided by historical incidents that led to disparate outcomes?
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THE AMERICAN RED CROSS: VOLUNTEERING IN TIMES OF DISASTERS
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Linda MacIntyre, PhD, RN, PHN, FAAN
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Chief Nurse, American Red Cross
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Nurses are the most trusted of professionals and have been named as a significant group that can achieve health equity by The Future of Nursing report (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2021). Yet, The Future of Nursing 2020–2030 report also states that many nurses are not prepared to address disasters and public health emergencies that disproportionally affect disadvantaged individuals.
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The Environmental Protection Agency released a report stating that racial minorities in the US will bear a disproportionate burden of climate change effects, including more deaths from extreme heat and property loss from flooding in the wake of sea level rise (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2021). The Red Cross reports that “climate change impacts affect vulnerable populations” and that this increases the need for Red Cross services (2021).
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Ninety percent of the American Red Cross workforce is comprised of volunteers. More volunteers, both those with a health professional license and those without a license, are needed to assist individuals and families ...