Disaster management involves mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. A disaster is defined as an event causing damage that exceeds local capacity to respond. Disasters can be natural like earthquakes or human-caused like industrial accidents. Nurses play key roles in each phase of disaster management through community education, maintaining response plans, providing triage and medical care during events, and supporting long-term recovery through mental health services and environmental monitoring. Effective disaster management requires coordination between nurses, emergency responders, and social services to strengthen community resilience.

1. Introduction of Disaster
management
IYUMVA Aimable
BNS Student,
CLARKE
INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Kampala

2. Definitions of Disaster
A disaster can be defined as any occurrence that
cause damage, ecological disruption, loss of
human life, deterioration of health and health
services on a scale sufficient to call for
extraordinary response from outside the
affected community or area.(WHO, 1995)

3. • An occurrence of a severity and magnitude that normally
results in death, injuries and property damage that cannot be
managed through the routine procedure and resources of
government.- FEMA (Federal Emergency Management
Agency)
• A disaster can be defined as an occurrence either nature or
man made that causes human suffering and creates human
needs that victims cannot alleviate without assistance.
American Red Cross (ARC)

4. Definitions of Disaster Nursing
Disaster Nursing can be defined as the adaptation Of
professional nursing skills in recognizing and meeting
the nursing physical and emotional needs resulting
from a disaster.
The overall goal of disaster nursing is to achieve the
best possible level of health for the people and the
community involved in the disaster.
“Disaster Nursing is nursing practiced in a situation
where professional supplies, equipment, physical
facilities and utilities are limited or not available”.

5. ‘DISASTER’ alphabetically means:
• D - Destructions
I - Incidents
S - Sufferings
A - Administrative, Financial Failures.
S - Sentiments
T - Tragedies
E - Eruption of Communicable diseases.
R - Research programme and its
implementation

6. TYPES OF DISASTER
Disaster is an occurrence, either natural or man-made that
causes human suffering and creates human needs that
victims cannot alleviate without assistance.
Disasters can be natural or man-made.
• Natural disasters include droughts, earthquakes,
tsunamis, forest fires, landslides, blizzards, hurricanes,
tornadoes, floods and volcanic disruptions.
• Man-made disasters includes hazardous substance
accidents (e.g., chemicals, toxic gases), radiologic
accidents, resource shortage (e.g. food, electricity and
water), structural fire and explosions and domestic
disturbances (e.g., terrorism, bombing and riots).

7. Disaster Agent:
• To apply the epidemiological framework in a
disaster situation, the agent is the physical item
that actually causes the injury or destruction.
• Primary agents include falling buildings, heat,
wind, rising water and smoke.
• Secondary agents include bacteria and viruses
that produce contamination or infection after
the primary agent has caused injury or
destruction.
• Primary and secondary agents will vary
according to the type of disaster.

8. PHASES OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT
there are four phases of disaster management
which include:-
• Mitigation,
• Preparedness,
• Response, and
• Recovery

9. Mitigation
Mitigation includes any activities that prevent a
disaster, reduce the chance of a disaster
happening, or reduce the damaging effects of
unavoidable disasters.

10. PREPAREDNESS
• Disaster preparedness refers to measures
taken to prepare for and reduce the effects of
disasters. That is, to predict and, where
possible, prevent disasters, mitigate their
impact on vulnerable populations, and
respond to and effectively cope with their
consequences.

11. Disaster response
• It consists of a number of elements, for example;
warning/evacuation, search and rescue, providing immediate
assistance, assessing damage, continuing assistance and the
immediate restoration of infrastructure.
• The aim of emergency response is to provide immediate assistance
to maintain life, improve health and support the morale of the
affected population.

12. Recovery
• Disaster recovery (DR) involves a set of
policies, tools and procedures to enable the
recovery following a natural or human-
induced disaster
The role of Community Health Nurse in disaster
management varies according to the
different stages.

13. Nursing role during mitigation
• Nurses have a key role in disaster mitigation by working with
local, state and federal agencies in identifying disaster risks and
developing disaster prevention strategies through extensive
public education in disaster prevention and readiness.
• To plan effectively for disaster prevention the nurse needs to have
community assessment information, including knowledge of
community resources (e.g., emergency services, hospitals, and
clinics), community health personnel (e.g., nurses, doctors,
pharmacists, emergency medical teams, dentists, and volunteers),
and community government officials.

14. The role of nurses during disaster
preparedness
• Initiate and update disaster plan, ¨ Provide disaster
educational programmes specific to the area
• Provide an updated record of vulnerable population
within the community.
• Educate the vulnerable population about what
impact the disaster might have on them,
• Review individualized strategies like, availability of
specific resources in the event of emergency,
• As a community advocate, the community health
nurse should always seek to keep a safe
environment.

15. ROLE OF NURSES IN DISASTER RESPONSE
• The role of the community health nurse during
disaster depends greatly on the nurse's past
experience, role in the institutions and
community's preparedness, and specialized
training.
• Once rescue workers begin to arrive at the scene,
immediate plans for triage should begin.
• Triage is the process of separating casualties and
allocating treatment based on the victim's
potential for survival.

16. ROLE OF NURSE IN DISASTER RECOVERY
• The role of the community health nurse in the recovery phase is as
varied as in the preparedness and response phases of a disaster.
• Community Health Nurses play an important role in teaching proper
hygiene.
• The nurse must also remain alert for environmental health hazards
during the recovery phase of a disaster.
• In some cases, stress can lead to suicide and domestic abuse.
although most people eventually recover from disasters, mental
distress may persist in these valuable populations who continue to
live in chronic adversity. Referrals to mental health professional
should continue as long as the need exists.

17. References
• Thomas D Schneider, Larry Collins 2000.
Disaster Management and Preparedness.
• Arnold M. Howitt , Caroline Brassard, David W.
Giles 2014. Natural Disaster Management in
the Asia-Pacific.
• Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disaster_manag
ement