Nursing Intervention to the Terrible Earthquake in Haiti in 2010
Nursing Interventions
Nursing interventions help to improve people’s health by limiting injuries while treating diseases. The audiences of the “Diary of Medical Mission Trip” videos listen to trials and challenges experienced in efforts to provide medical care to Haitians after the 2010 catastrophic earthquake. Haiti is a developing country that has a weak health system and other healthcare-related concerns. Most of the concerns viewed in the videos are presumably caused by poor sanitation and lack or inadequate supply of clean water. Other concerns observed from the video are a poor supply of medical supplies and starvation. Besides poor sanitation, situations hampering efforts to provide quality health care are critical to the overall procedures and disaster preparedness in the region. Further, healthcare providers have no absolute work environment. This paper examines different nursing interventions in the three prevention stages including primary, secondary, and tertiary preventions.
Primary prevention
The principal objective of the primary prevention stage is to aid in saving individuals from life-threatening injuries. A practical example of primary prevention is the evaluation and planning of the needs in a particular location. For instance, there is a need for vaccines and other protective measures to different employees in the region. The phase may involve different procedures that prevent the occurrence of diseases or procedures that increase the chances of living healthy lives. This stage usually emphasizes on antibiotic therapy processes and practices as well as access to emergency, surgical, and medical obstetric. Primary prevention also focuses on improved case management, especially for burns, wounds, and trauma. Therefore, this phase may establish the critical risk factors for various communicable diseases. Aggravated malnutrition and poor housing and lack of food and inaccessible healthcare cause high rates of communicable diseases following a natural disaster (Jafari, Shahsanai, Memarzadeh & Loghmani, 2011).
Secondary intervention
Secondary prevention refers to the acute stage in a disaster. The video refers to the stage as “hitting the ground running” in terms of treatment and recovery. Every individual is on high alert and energized at this phase. Although people are not always organized for efficiency, organized operations are critical at this stage (GCU, 2010). Prioritized immunizations such as high-level campaigns for immunizations against tetanus help in wound care. These immunizations are conducted in the second stage to assist in assuring that the lives of people are neither in impending danger nor get secondary conditions from infections. As such, secondary intervention may include practices and procedures for early diagnosis while providing high-quality treatment while restricting or preventing secondary consequences from the illnesses.
Tertiary prevention
Tertiary prevention mainly focuses on limiting the detrimental effects of illnesses while endeavoring to maintain a patient’s normal health condition. This kind of prevention involves long-tern treatment to rehabilitate one’s body, provision of effective medication strategies as well as the provision of health education to patients. Although this region is highly economically depressed, there is a great need for sustainable resources and reassessment of these resources by the government authorities. The latter would create an improved emergency response system. The stage also involves control and response to communicable diseases and preparedness for highly transmitted or epidemic-prone illnesses. One of the best intervention procedures is the provision of nutritional support and malnutrition control for the kids and youths. For instance, it is helpful to provide adequate and safe water and sanitation processes. This intervention can be performed in the tertiary stage to help the people of Haiti improve their health status and develop strong bodies. By developing strong and healthy bodies, Haitians can easily survive and restore their community while avoiding further sicknesses.
The phase in which the interventions fall
Before the occurrence of an actual disaster, there is a considerable period for disaster planning. The interventions would be helpful at the phase before the impact. The disaster planning process greatly influences how disasters affect a community, region, or state. Communities can gather the required resources necessary to address the impacts of the disaster before it happens by assessing both the likelihood and risks from the disaster. According to Maurer (2013), disaster planning assists emergency response agencies to adequately and effectively address the impacts of a disaster.
Preferred work agency
I would prefer to work at Red Cross for its organization and swift disaster response. Besides, the agency provides various nursing interventions while providing long-term healthcare impact on the affected communities. For instance, the Red Cross deals with food and shelter support, medicine, and other healthcare supplies, damage evaluations, and family-related concerns after the disaster. Of importance, the agency provides disaster welfare inquiry services and counseling services to the affected parties. Although I would prefer working with prefer primary health agencies in order to help save people’s lives, I would greatly appreciate the tertiary stage because I have the feeling that this is a personal passion and forte. Another reason behind this is that I can assist in reorganizing Haitians’ food and water sources while aiming to making them strong and create healthy community.
In conclusion, the videos demonstrate the importance of a robust disaster response team and the difficulties that health workers encounter in their efforts to save lives during a disaster. Considering the catastrophic natural disaster that befell the people of Haiti, lack of clean water, food and access to medical supplies can hamper the efforts of healthcare providers.
References
GCU. (2010). “Diary of a Medical Mission trip”. Retrieved from Grand Canyon Unversity: http://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs427v/diary-of-medical-mission-trip/v2.1/
Jafari, N., Shahsanai, A., Memarzadeh, M. & Loghmani A. (2011). Prevention of communicable diseases after disaster: A review. Journal of Research in Medical Sciences : The Official Journal of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. 16(7):956-962
Maurer, F. S. (2013). Community/Public health nursing practice: Health for families and populations (5th ed ed.). St. Louis, Missouri: Saunders Elsevier.