The Nurseʼs Role in the Federal Civil Defense Administration

Abstract

tration is primarily concerned with the preparation for and operation of programs to maintain the health of the people and to care for casualties and other civilian victims of an enemy attack. This office has two major divisions: Emergency Welfare and Health and Special Weapons Defense. The Emergency Welfare Division has as its responsibility the preparation for mass shelters, mass feeding, emergency clothing, evacuation, temporary rehabilitation, among others. The Health and Special Weapons Defense Division is concerned with those civil defense health services which relate directly to the care of casualties and the restoration and maintenance of public health facilities for the people. This division is composed of representatives of the professional services who share the responsibility for planning and operating programs for safeguardinghealth and caring for casualties. The relationship of these professional services to each other is shown in Figure 2. The nursing service consultant in the Health and Special Weapons Defense Division is a member o: the Professional Services Planning Branch and is charged with the following responsibilities: 1. Planning modifications of usual nursing methods and technics and developing new nursing procedures and technics necessary to complement plans for medical and casualty care. 2. Co-ordinating nursing care on a T HE Federal Civil Defense Act of 1950 became law on January 12, 1951.1 This act provided the legal basis for a national civil defense program which would prepare in peacetime for civil defense activities in the event of enemy attack. The Federal Civil Defense Administration has been established as an independent agency within the executive branch of the government. It was organized to include ten essential services that would need to be provided during any emergency caused by enemy attack upon the United States. These services are rescue, police, fire fighting, welfare, health, warden, engineering, transportation, communications, and staff. The relationship of these services to each other are indicated in the organization chart (Figure 1). Nine