Abstract
Medical doctors conduct many health care and promotion activities after a disaster. However, there are limited studies on how doctors engage disaster-affected community members during the activities. This paper aims to examine medical doctors’ experiences in engaging their community during the rehabilitation period after a big disaster. The study is based on a more extensive ethnographic study at disaster-affected health centers and communities in Aceh. The researcher conducted interviews with eleven community doctors and 45 hours of participant observations involving three doctors. Findings show different levels of community engagement in the doctor participants’ experiences. Most of them only ‘informed’ rather than ‘engaged’ the disaster-affected patient and community. This paper calls for the enactment of community engagement in healthcare practices and education.
Highlights
Disasters may cause significant disruptions in healthcare services for several reasons: healthcare facilities may be severely damaged, deaths of healthcare workers. and patients might be displaced to areas afar
Medical doctors are not well-positioned to respond to disasters without proper training and link to public health officials and community elements [1]
This paper aims to explore the life experiences of medical doctors working in post-disaster areas
Summary
Disasters may cause significant disruptions in healthcare services for several reasons: healthcare facilities may be severely damaged, deaths of healthcare workers. and patients might be displaced to areas afar. Patients might be displaced to areas afar These disruptions provide significant challenges for medical doctors to cope. Medical doctors working in disaster areas should be prepared to face the challenges together with the community they serve. This paper aims to explore the life experiences of medical doctors working in post-disaster areas. It examines how they engaged community members to cope with challenges in the aftermath of a huge disaster. It starts with a literature review on the medical doctor’s role in disaster management, concepts of community engagement, and elaboration on data collection and data analysis methods. The paper concludes and suggests some recommendations for further research
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
