Community health nurse priority must be addressed in an environment of constrained resources. Florence nightingale demonstrated to the world the important role of nurses on the front lines of war-related disaster. No single discipline, agency, organization or jurisdiction can or should claim sole responsibility for the complex array of challenges associated with the disaster, whether caused by nature, humans, or some combination of both. Community health nurse play an integral role in meeting the national preparedness goal, a part of the national preparedness system: “A secure and resilient nation with the capabilities required across the whole community to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to and recover from the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk (FEMA, 2013).” Nursing and specifically, Community Health Nursing practice must remain a constant across the national planning framework and its disaster cycle of preparedness (prevention, protection and mitigation), response and recovery. The recognition of Community Health Nurse population-based skills in times of disaster is an extremely important part of our national capacity for response. Community health nurse should not be simply viewed as acute care (i.e., hospital) replacements or first responder extenders (e.g., triage personnel) in a mass casualty environment. This is not to say that community health nurse cannot do these functions if educated. Indeed, all health professionals may be called upon to expand in non-routine practice areas during a catastrophic response. Above all, though, in disaster preparedness, response and recovery, community health nurse are better used for services they do best, namely population based practice like rapid needs assessments of communities impacted by the incident, population-based triage, mass dispensing of preventive or curative therapies, community education, providing care or managing shelters for displaced populations and of course, provision of ongoing continuity in essential public health services.
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