Nursing Department

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‫ج‬
‫ـ‬‫ـ‬‫ـ‬‫ـ‬
‫م‬‫امعة‬
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‫ؤت‬
‫ـ‬‫ـ‬‫ـ‬
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‫كل‬
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‫التم‬‫ية‬
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‫يض‬‫ر‬
DISASTER AND EMERGENCY NURSING
Mutah University
Faculty of Nursing
TYPESOFDISASTER

2. Types of Disasters
1. Natural “Act of God” Unintentional
Tsunamis, Floods, Hurricanes, Earthquakes,
Wildfires, etc.
2. Man-made (Intentional) Technological
Haz-Mat, Nuclear Power plant accident,
Chemical, Nuclear, Radiological, Explosion,
Acts of Terrorism.
3. Hybrid (Biological + terrorism=
Bioterrorism) Epidemic e.g., 1918
Influenza Pandemic
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3.  Epidemic : wide spread or out break of
infectious disease
 Pandemic: world wide spread of a problem
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4. Natural Disasters
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5. Types of disaster
 Natural.
 Examples :
◦ - earthquake,
◦ - floods,
◦ - hurricane,
◦ - tsunami.
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6. Hurricanes
 Definition : severe tropical cyclone usual
with heavy rains and rapid winds.
 The primary health hazard from hurricanes or
cyclones lies in the risk of drowning from the
storm surge associated with the landfall of the
storm. Most deaths associated with hurricanes are
drowning deaths.
 Secondarily, a hazard exists for injuries from
flying debris due to the high winds.
 Nurses can be instrumental in providing direct
emergency care to drowning and head injuries.
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7. Tornadoes
 Definition: localized and violently destructive wind storms
occurring over land ch ch by funnel shape clouds extending
toward the ground.
 The primary hazard from a health perspective in a tornado
is the risk for injuries from flying debris. The high winds and
circular nature of a tornado leads to the elevation and
transport of anything that is not fastened down.
 Most victims of tornadoes are affected by head and chest
trauma due to being struck by debris or from a structural
collapse.
 Some individuals are injured while on the ground.
 Others are lifted into the air by the tornado and dropped at
another location.
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8. Nurses role
 Nurses can save lives and reduce public's fear and
assist in mitigation measures such as equipped
shelters. Nurses play key roles in disaster
preparedness. Nurses can help in initiating or
updating emergency plans at their work settings
as well as being knowledgeable about the
disasters that their areas are vulnerable to.
Nurses can inform the public about the shelters
available in the area and the importance of having
an emergency family plan especially when there
are family members who have special health
needs

9. Floods
 Definition: The occurrence of incoming water
between low tide following high tide.
 Floods may originate very quickly following a
quick rain storm, or they may develop over a
short period following an extended period of rain
or quick snow melt
 The primary hazard from flooding is drowning
 Longer term health concerns from flooding is the
development of disease from contaminated water
and lack of hygiene.
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10. Nurses role
 Nurses play a key role as perfectionists in
assisting in maintenance of proper
sanitation measures, proper control of
vector populations, and control of
infectious disease through public
education.

11. Earthquakes
 Definition : shaking and vibration at the
surface of earth resulting from under ground
movement along a fault plane of volcanic
activity.
 A significant global concern
 The primary health concern:
• Injuries arising from structural collapse
• Most injuries occur amongst individuals
trapped at the time of the earthquake
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12. Earthquakes
 Well known prevention strategy is to prevent
buildings from collapsing
 There is a recognized need to develop better
rescue strategies for retrieving individuals from
collapsed buildings
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13. Nurses role
 Head and chest injuries and fractures are
common in earthquake victims. Nurses
poses clinical skills that can save lives
when they assist in searching and
retrieving trapped individuals. Also the
injury rate is high for first responders, and
nurses can play a major role in protecting
the rescue teams. In fact all rescue teams
should have at least one nurse.

14. Tsunami
 A cataclysm (disaster) resulting from
destructive sea waves caused by an
earthquake or volcanic eruption under the
sea

15. VOLCANOES
 Definition: a fissure in the earth crust
through which molten lava and gases erupt.
 Rare, but can be catastrophic when they occur
 Over the 25 year period (1972-1996), there was an
average of 6 eruptions per year, causing an average of
1017 deaths and 285 injuries
 Health outcomes are associated with volcanic
eruptions:
• Respiratory illnesses from the inhalation of ash
• For individuals close to the volcano, some danger
exists from lava flows, or more likely mud flows
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18. VICTIMS OF NATURAL DISASTERS
 The increase in number of disasters has been
accompanied by increase in numbers of people
affected. Consequences of disasters include:
displacement, losing employment and income,
physical and mental health disabilities. Therefore,
responding to the needs requires working as a
team. Multidisciplinary teams serve a wide range
of affected populations. Nurses are often under
estimated when dealing with disasters. This
lecture demonstrates that nurse involvement in
disaster management can be beneficial at local,
national and international level.

19. 0
1000000
2000000
3000000
4000000
5000000
6000000
7000000
8000000
9000000
10000000
1900
1905
1910
1915
1920
1925
1930
1935
1940
1945
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
Conflict Natural Disasters
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20. DEATHS DUE TO NATURAL DISASTERS
 Deaths per year have declined over the
long period, these data are from Centre for
Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters.
There are fewer conflicts, and the conflicts
have a smaller number of deaths, but this
is only an accounting of battle deaths.

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22. ASIA
 Asia is at higher risk for disasters and
Africa for complex emergencies.
 Connolly A, Gayer M, Ryan M, Salama P, Spiegel P, Heyman D. Communicable diseases
in complex emergencies: impact and challenges. The Lancet, 364, 9449: 1974 – 1983,
2004
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23. Impact of natural disaster in the last 30
years.
 Death of 3 million people
 Economic loss increased due to
disaster like flood
 In Indian scenario, 34milion people
affected per year and 5116 death per
year.
 In US, economic loss is 400 million
dollar and 3 million people died.

24. MAN-MADE Disasters
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25. Man-made Threat
(Intentional) Technological
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Unpredictable Challenges
Disruptive
Unexpected
Targeting weaknesses
Very rare, impossible to conceive
before event
Threats to Civilians, Information
Infrastructure

26. Types of Man-made disaster
Examples. :
- nuclear accidents,
- industrial accidents,
- Bombing ,
- Transportation ,
- Technological ,
- terrorism.
- Wars
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27. Nuclear and Radiological Attack
 “Dirty Bomb”
 Appeal to terrorists
 Availability
 Nuclear Attack Chernobyl nuclear
power station USSR 1986.
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28. Public health response to man made
disasters
Primary prevention:
 prevention of occurrences of fires ,
explosions ( Chemical , radiation) with
tighter regulations of chemical plants.
 Appropriate engineering and technological
measures.
 Early warning systems and protection
against human errors.
 Develop civil defense program and stop
arm race. And prevent nuclear war.

29. Terrorism
 It is estimated that as many as 26
nations possess chemical or
biological agents.
 10 countries are believed to possess
biological agents as weapons.
 Attack can take many forms.
 Causes of most wars:
◦ Gain of land assets and independence.
◦ Powered conflict between nations
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30. Terrorist threats and actual terrorist events
Will have tremendous psychological and
behavioral effects.
May outweigh the direct impact of the
chemical and biological events.
Tend to completely ignore or
Assume “the worst” – everyone will freak,
panic and the ensuing chaos will lead to
breakdown of society.
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HYBRID DISASTERS

32. Hybrid (composed of mixed
origin)
Hybrid (Biological + terrorism= Bioterrorism)
 Examples:
 1. spread of disease in community
Epidemic e.g., 1918 Influenza Pandemic
 2. global warming.( green house effect
caused by the heat trapping gases in the
atmosphere released by burning of fossil
fuels and depletion of ozone layer due to
the use of aerosolized chloro-floro
carbones (CFC)
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33. Sarin Gas Attack on Tokyo Subway
highlights several important issues!
 A covert attack may occur anywhere at
anytime.
 Generally, “worried well” outnumber primary
victims.
 “Walk-ins” and worried well may overwhelm
health care systems and providers.
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