Nursing in Disaster

Abstract

THE care of sick and injured peois a primary concern in any disaster. During the past year thousands of nurses helped care for people in flood and tornado areas. Such disasters can strike any community at any time, and organizing and planning are essential if the victims are to be taken care of easily and quickly. It is obvious, however, that enemy action would greatly magnify the problems which we might be faced with, and that we need to plan now for better organization of our disaster nursing services. Under Congressional charter, the American Red Cross is responsible for helping victims of natural disasters, and the responsibility for all relief activities which enemy action might make necessary has been assigned to the Federal Civil Defense Administration. Because of the many elements which the FCDA and ARC emergency nursing plans have in common, the representatives of the nursing services and nurses' associations have agreed that there should be one joint committee for nursing in emergencies in each community. The nursing representatives who proposed this plan included personnel from the Federal Civil Defense Administration, the U.S. Public Health Service, which has responsibilities in both types of emergency care, the Committee on Nursing in National Defense of the American Nurses' Association, the Committee on Nursing Education and Service in National Defense of the National League for Nursing, and the American Red Cross. One Committee would help to avert confusion, prevent duplication of effort, and promote the best use of nursing re-