Advantage Medical Professionals provided this article.

Nurses know firsthand that disaster can strike at any moment, and often without warning. Being prepared in advance is crucial for medical professionals. Nurses play a critical role in natural disasters, as patients will still require critical care despite the loss of electricity, flooding, or compromised infrastructure. Nurses in the emergency unit face the seemingly impossible challenge of triaging every disaster patient. In addition to the normal challenges nurses face, nurses rise to the seemingly impossible task of safely and efficiently caring for patients without their identification or loved ones around to flag possible allergies or medical issues or provide support. In these cases, nurses are quite literally a patient’s lifeline.

National Disaster Risk Zones and Seasonality

Some areas are arguably more disaster-prone than others, but most natural disaster spikes depend on regional climate or weather patterns. Like the medical field, advancements in science and technology have helped field experts detect and communicate the threat of severe weather and natural disasters to the public faster and more accurately than ever.

If you’re considering a travel assignment far away from home, FEMA’s National Risk Index is an interactive US map that will help you easily visualize and understand whether you can expect severe weather or natural disaster patterns in the area.

Severe Weather Disaster Seasonality:

Crises often occur unexpectedly, but most weather-related disasters that we face have some established patterns around certain times and/or locations:

Hurricane Season

Where: Gulf Coast, east coast

When: June 1^st – November 30^th

Tornado season

Where: Midwest, parts of southern US

When: Peak season March – July*

Wildfire Season

Where: West, Midwest US

When: Peak season from May – September*

General Disaster Preparedness & Best Practices

Learn the Healthcare Facility’s Preparedness Plan

Hospitals and other healthcare facilities typically have a disaster response protocol, especially in geographic areas prone to specific types of disasters. If you’re considering an assignment in one of these high-risk areas, check with your recruiter or the facility to learn more about the facility’s procedures and expectations during a disaster or crisis event. When in doubt, ask about the emergency protocol during orientation.

If you are not needed to stay, confirm with your manager whether you will be needed as a response or recovery person. This person usually comes in to relieve another who has stayed during the storm once the danger is over and they are able to take a clear and safe path to the facility.

Gather Supplies for Personal Use

During uncertain times, you’ll want to stay prepared with anything you may need. Keeping an “emergency bag” easily accessible and packed with personal items, including clothing, toiletries, and essential medicines, for at least 3-4 days will help ensure you’re always one step ahead.

Plan Your Stay and/or Evacuation Routes

It is common for facilities to allow (or even require) nurses and other healthcare professionals to stay overnight during natural disasters and crisis events. Having your emergency bag handy ensures you have all the items you need to stay healthy, hydrated, and alert through what might be the longest and most taxing nursing shifts you will ever endure. Even if you are not needed to stay, it is still best to familiarize yourself with all evacuation routes, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the area.

Share your plan with your family beforehand.

Don’t wait to share your emergency or evacuation plans (including potential backup plans) with your loved ones. Whether you plan to evacuate the area, stay at the facility, or return to the facility to help relieve the initial response team, they will (understandably) worry about your safety and well-being. Share your plan with them and communicate any changes that arise while also helping them understand that communication systems may experience delays or outages during and after a natural disaster or extenuating event.

We hope you found this article on national disaster preparedness helpful. Do you have any disaster preparedness tips to share with your fellow travel nurses? Comment them below.

>> Treat yourself to a change of pace (and PLACE) by exploring all the travel nursing assignments Advantage Medical Professionals has available nationwide.

Our job board is a great place to search for your next travel nurse assignment. We have you covered with our housing page if housing is an issue. You can search for what you are looking for.

[Sources]:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/fs-tags/fire-season

https://www.ready.gov/kit

https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/tornadoes/

https://www.fs.usda.gov/fs-tags/fire-season

https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/hurricanes/before.html

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This article is provided by: TNAA

The Importance of Travel nurses during natural disasters.

Travel Nurses During a Natural Disaster can be a huge benefit to the community and the local healthcare facilities. Natural disasters happen all the time, but when big ones hit our country — such as Hurricane Harvey and more recently Hurricanes Florence and Michael — we are all on high alert. When tragedy strikes close to home, people rush to donate their blood and money to organizations that can help the victims. As the stories develop, our social media newsfeed is flooded with updates and amazing stories of survival.

Roles of Travel Nurses During a Natural Disaster

As travel nurses, we have a major role to play in these situations. It is during natural disasters that travel nurses can really shine and show their merit. The roles that of a travel nurse during a national disaster is one of responsibility and commitment to the nursing industry as a whole.

Travel nurses are vital during natural disasters. It could be that your next assignment could be in a disaster zone, to help out with the aftermath. Let’s look at why travel nurses could play a key role in helping with the aftermath of a hurricane.

A Big City With Not Enough Nurses:

One of the biggest concerns with natural disasters revolves around the amount of people that are directly affected and displaced by the tragedy. Location has a lot to do with the severity of a storm. Urban areas are becoming increasingly overpopulated in our modern times. The more people that are affected, the more severe the disaster becomes.

Disaster response and emergency management specialists have been studying the rising cases of displacement due to natural disasters. As Eastern Kentucky University notes, urbanization is to blame for displacement, not the natural disaster itself. This is because so many large cities are improperly zoned and ill-prepared for large scale evacuations and disasters. Houston, certainly, suffered from this problem. It is a notoriously unregulated place in terms of zoning laws. Many of the expansions within Houston city limits have inhibited drainage. Unfortunately for the citizens of Houston, flooding was inevitable. Primarily due to poor urban planning.

Job Demands for Travel Nurses During a Natural Disaster

For travel nurses, this means jobs within the disaster zone will be in very high demand for months after a natural disaster. To add to the problems, many urban cities already suffer from nurse and physician shortages. Natural disasters only escalate the need for qualified professionals.

According to 2016 data provided by the Texas Health and Human Services: Texas is especially prone to a nursing shortage before 2030. The report continues to note: “By 2030, the supply of RN FTEs is expected to grow by 35.4% to 271,667, while demand will grow by 53.8% to 331,638, leaving a deficit of 59,970 RN FTEs.”

With the sudden need of medical help resulting from a natural disaster, travel nurses can be used to temporarily fill the gap. Alleviating stress for the overburdened hospitals in the area. However, assignments in natural disaster situations aren’t for everyone.

Not Your Average Nursing Assignment

Some of the most common organizations that employ volunteer nurses during natural disasters are the American Red Cross and RN Response Network (RNRN). Both of these organizations work hard to deploy nurses in crisis areas, but not all nurses will be up for the job.

For nurses on the front lines, life can be especially difficult. Many nurses will be working in less-than-ideal conditions (such as pop-up tents), and will be faced with all the stress that comes with crisis care. Many nurses may work extended hours, with little down time and even fewer chances to catch up on sleep. Burnout and and will most likely happen. Nurses will need to be prepared to counteract and deal with this unique type of stress.

For some nurses, the satisfaction they feel from helping those in crisis will be well worth the mental, physical, and emotional labor. Nurses with a strong internal constitution will fit in well with crisis care.

How and Where to Help as Travel Nurses During a Natural Disaster

Travel nurses can do their part by providing some much needed temporary support during the immediate aftermath of natural disasters. If you feel that traveling to crisis areas is within your capacity there are two ways to get involved.

Volunteer with either the American Red Cross or RNRN (or another organization).
Speak to your travel nurse recruiter about being moved to a crisis area as soon as possible.

Find your next Travel Nurse JOB

Surviving Hurricane Matthew

They say adventures are never fun when you’re having one. Like most of the stuff they say, this little nugget contains some truth, but it’s not the whole truth.

There’s a certain yin and yang to adventure. A place were courage and fear intersect. It’s finding comfort in the uncomfortable, and knowing you’re in the middle of what’s going to make a dynamite story, if you survive it. This is one of those stories.

On the Path of Hurricane Matthew

My wife had taken an assignment on the southern east coast. We were staying right on the beach. Most of our time had been spent in Tennessee and parts of Southern Indiana, so a little beach time was a welcome change. We had everything figured out, housing, transportation, even her schedule was predictable because of the way the hospital rotated its travelers. Best laid plans of mice and nurses. Who would have thought a hurricane would hit the coast?

Evacuation

South Carolina Governor Niki Haley gave us adequate time to evacuate. She told us to get a hundred miles from the coast and batten down the hatches.

It was our first hurricane, so we listened like good citizens, and began battening. Everyone must have been thinking the same thing, because it was hard to find a hotel anywhere within a hundred miles. We even looked as far as Ashville, NC. It was leaf changing season though, and a weekend to boot, so no luck there. We decided, in true adventurer fashion, to head out with no scheduled destination. We headed northwest, and ended up in the North Carolina town of Lumberton, home of the LHS Raiders.

Seeking Refuge in Lumberton

On our first night we drank Hurricanes and got down to late 70’s soft rock classics. But then Lumberton got slammed by Matthew. He had reached a strong, and destructive category 3 by the time he reached us. The Lumberton river had flooded I-95 northbound, and another body of water had the southbound side flooded out.

The whole town lost power, and a few hours after that the hotel we were staying at lost water. There was no way to get gas, and only one grocery store was opened. Our 4G went blank, there was no wi-fi, and our cell service was in and out. We had time lapsed back to the 20^th century.

Even in a Hurricane – Travel Nurses must work!

My wife had to be at work the next day, and the hospital was already running short staffed due to the storm. As all travel nurses know, come heck or high water (in this case, literally), you must be at work.

We tried leaving Lumberton that morning via a route figured out by the North Carolina State Police. Six hours later, we had made it five blocks when we were turned back and told there was no way out. I had some beef jerky, a pillow, and four beers. I was going to be fine. But my wife was having none of it. She had patients and staff depending on her, and she wasn’t going to let them down.

Finding a Way

We pulled into a parking lot where several people had gathered. My wife jumped out and started asking people if they knew of a route out of town. I kept telling her it was hopeless, but she was relentless. Eventually, she found a local who was telling another local how to get around the flood waters. The guy getting directions said we could follow him to highway 17, but he wasn’t sure if we could get south on it once we got there.

We drove through flood waters, mud, and down gravel roads. At one point, we even drove down a four-wheeler trail to avoid a washout. It took us two hours to go nine miles, and we were rerouted more times than I can count. Finally, we made it to highway 17. And yes, we could go south towards our destination.

I was in awe. Almost two thousand people were trapped in Lumberton, either because they had sought refuge there, or because they couldn’t make it any further down 95, but my wife, super nurse, had found a way out. She made it to work, and I celebrated her victory with beef jerky and warm beer. We were both at our best.

ETA TGN STAFF:

Please consult with your assignment hospital and/or travel nurse agency if you are in the path of a hurricane. Most facilities have some sort of plan for these occurrences and many will provide overnight accommodations for scheduled staff.

NEVER put yourself in a situation where you are disobeying local emergency personnel. You could put both yourself and others in danger.

Nurses during natural disasters

Navigating Chaos: The Travel Nurse’s Guide to Disaster Preparedness

National Disaster Risk Zones and Seasonality