Revising Protocols in the Midst of Disaster Response

Refining an unsuccessful triage process.

Health care moves at such a rapid pace these days that quality improvement (QI) seems to be never-ending. We know these projects can help us to better our care, but it sure does become tiring when yet another new protocol or data responsibility falls on our shoulders. What if you were tasked with an urgent QI project in the midst of responding to a disaster?

Considering our own repeated scrambles to squeeze QI into ordinary workdays, imagine what it would be like to manage QI in a setting of extremely limited resources, where many people were desperate for emergency services—and you had to “get it right,” ASAP.

In “Implementing a Fast-Track Team Triage Approach in Response to Hurricane Maria” (free until November 15), Brittany Parak and colleagues describe their efforts to improve emergency services after their mobile military hospital was deployed to Puerto Rico, just 16 days after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.

“We soon discovered it would be necessary to refine our triage process, as our initial strategy resulted in limited access to care, prolonged wait times, many people leaving without being seen, and patients with acute problems not being cared for in a timely […]

2019-10-24T10:04:30-04:00October 24th, 2019|Nursing, Public health|0 Comments
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Nurses Getting Things Done: A Red Cross Volunteer’s Experience

Providing support after a local disaster.

Red Cross volunteer nurse Debby Dailey hugging her client, Janetta Sconiers. Photo by Eddie Zamora for the American Red Cross

Most people are aware of the important role nurses play in the American Red Cross, from its founding by Clara Barton—138 years ago this week—to nurses’ contributions during national and regional disasters. Yet the varied work of these nurse volunteers is often unseen by other nurses, health care providers, and the public.

Within the Red Cross, nurses hold leadership, teaching, and crisis response positions, providing crucial and sometimes long-term follow-up assistance to people who’ve been affected by disasters.

Nurses “are in an ideal position to do this work.”

Debby Dailey is a nurse and former firefighter and emergency medical technician. She currently works as a nursing clinical instructor and has been a Red Cross volunteer for 40 years, responding to national disasters and playing an important role in all aspects of Red Cross work in her region, California’s Central Valley.

This month’s In the Community column, “Advocating for Janetta,” features a rare look inside a Red Cross nurse volunteer’s daily work. In it, Dailey sequentially […]

2019-05-24T10:28:11-04:00May 24th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments
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10 Lessons Learned from Clara Barton’s Life and Work

By Jean Johnson, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor and founding dean (retired) at the George Washington University School of Nursing, member of the Red Cross National Nursing Committee, and Linda MacIntyre, PhD, RN, chief nurse of the American Red Cross

Clara Barton at desk in Red Cross headquarters Clara Barton at desk in Red Cross headquarters

This is the final post in the Clara Barton Study Tour series. There have been many lessons learned during the tour. All of the participants have agreed to take what we learned and reflect on how our lives have been changed by this trip and what we are going to do to use what we learned to further the humanitarian work of Clara and the Red Cross.

For reasons mentioned in previous posts, this tour was very emotional, as well as informative. Here are ten lessons we learned from our investigation into Clara Barton’s career and its continuing implications for ongoing efforts in the U.S. and internationally.

  1. Clara Barton was resilient and a renegade, transforming some of her biggest fears and bouts of depression into constructive humanitarian action.
  2. Clara was a superb logistician, gathering goods and transporting them during the Civil War and during disasters in the U.S. and internationally, such as her relief work in the Franco-Prussian War.
  3. Clara was tenacious. If she did not get what she wanted, she kept at it. When trying to meet with President Lincoln about establishing the Missing Soldiers […]
2016-11-21T13:00:53-05:00October 13th, 2016|Clara Barton 2016, Nursing, nursing history, Public health|0 Comments
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A 40-Year Red Cross Volunteer’s Ongoing Quest to Learn More

Sue Hassmiller, on left, as American Red Cross volunteer following 2011 Alabama tornado strikes.

By Susan B. Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) senior advisor for nursing, and director, Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, American Red Cross volunteer national ambassador. (Second post of ongoing Clara Barton Study Tour series.)

The ‘Red Cross lady’ on the phone.

Earthquake hits Mexico City! said the news flash on my television screen 40 years ago as I sat in my childhood home. I was a college student, house-sitting for my parents, who were in Mexico City for a long-deserved vacation.

I had no idea what to do. There were no cell phones in those days, no Internet. I hurried to the yellow rotary phone on the wall at the end of the kitchen cabinets and dialed 0 for the operator. I implored her help. She said she couldn’t help me, but would connect me to an organization that could. It was the American Red Cross. […]

2016-11-21T13:00:57-05:00September 23rd, 2016|Clara Barton 2016, nursing history, Public health|1 Comment
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Oklahoma Tornado Dispatch #2: A Nurse With a Focus on a More Orderly Disaster Response

The recent tornadoes in Oklahoma are the occasion for a new series on this blog. We will be receiving and publishing updates from Red Cross nurse volunteers in the coming days. This is the second post in the series.

By Sheryl Buckner, MS, RN-BC, CNE, assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Nursing and a volunteer with the Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corps since its inception. Sheryl’s past work history includes critical care, home health, and home-based case management; she is currently co-principal investigator for Nursing Initiative Promoting Immunization Training (NIP-IT), which is a free Web site for nurses and nursing students to learn about immunizations and includes a module on mass-response immunizations.

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2016-11-21T13:07:15-05:00June 19th, 2013|nursing perspective|0 Comments
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