International Disaster Nursing

The effects of a disaster on healthcare can range from conditions that immediately besiege the system with large numbers of patients, to catastrophes that strain its long-term sustainability. Nurses, as frontline health professionals, must have an understanding of the situations they may face before, during and after a disaster and they must develop the skills and strategies to provide effective and immediate care. International Disaster Nursing is the first truly comprehensive and internationally focused resource to address the diversity of issues and myriad scenarios that nurses and other health personnel could encounter during a disaster event. This text defines the many roles of the nurse within a multidisciplinary team, and aids the implementation of the community's disaster plans in a crisis. With an alarming increase in the occurrence of disasters in the last decade, International Disaster Nursing is the hallmark text in the field.

Foreword Mireille Kingma and Marvin Birnbaum; 1. Introduction to disasters and disaster nursing Robert Powers; 2. Healthcare facility preparedness Knox Andress; 3. Community response Tricia Wachtendorf; 4. First response Dario Gonzalez; 5. Disaster triage Jamie Ranse and Kathryn Zeitz; 6. Hospital impact: acute care Peggy McMahon; 7. Hospital impact: immediate issues Andy Robertson, Hazel Harley, Bronwen Kelly, Muriel Leclercq, Wayne Snell and Robert Stewart; 8. Hospital impact: long term issues Roberta Lavin; 9. Hospital impact: internal disasters Theo Ligthelm; 10. Incident command systems Craig Deatley; 11. Chemical preparedness/response Yukiya Hakozaki; 12. Biological preparedness/response Adrian Crowe; 13. Radiation/nuclear preparedness/response Steven Becker, Doran Christensen, Robert Whitcomb, Jr., W. Mark Hart and Steve Sugarman; 14. Explosive event preparedness/response Angelo Agostini; 15. Decontamination Robert Powers; 16. Populations with vulnerabilities and special needs Kelly Burkholder-Allen; 17. Pediatric care in disaster Karen Olness (vignette contribution from Jonathon Mould); 18. Regional planning Douglas Havro; 19. US federal resources/response Bennet Waters, Alan Cohn, Lynn Piacentini and Michael Zanker; 20. International response Susan Briggs; 21. Japan disaster response Satoko Mitani; 22. Israeli disaster response Bruria Adini, Robert Cohen and Daniel Laor; 23. Public health response Jane Richter; 24. Pandemic planning Lynne Slepski; 25. Health issues in humanitarian emergencies Mary Lou Fisher and Daksha Brahmbhatt; 26. Mental health in disasters Margaret Grigg and Frances Hughes; 27. Disaster ethics Leila Toiviainen; 28. Disaster recovery Gerry Fitzgerald, Peter Aitken and Elinor Davis; 29. The Southeast Asian Tsunami-response overview Elaine Daily; 30. U.S. Hurricane Katrina-response review Anne Hutton; 31. Disaster nursing educational competencies Lynn Slepski and Marguerite T. Littleton-Kearney; 32. Disaster nursing research Dean Whitehead and Paul Arbon; 33. Disaster research framework Elaine Daily.

International Disaster Nursing is the first truly comprehensive and internationally focused resource to address the diversity of issues and myriad scenarios that nurses and other health personnel could encounter during a disaster event.

Robert Powers is a registered nurse and consultant providing disaster nursing education to hospitals in the US.
Elaine Daily is Chair, Nursing Section, World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM).