Disaster Recovery Plan

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Develop a disaster recovery plan to lessen health disparities and improve access to community services after a disaster. Then, develop and record a 10-12 slide presentation (please refer to the PowerPoint tutorial) of the plan with audio and speaker notes for the Vila Health system, city officials, and the disaster relief team.

As you begin to prepare this assessment, you are encouraged to complete the Disaster Preparedness and Management activity. The information gained from completing this activity will help you succeed with the assessment as you think through key issues in disaster preparedness and management in the community or workplace. Completing activities is also a way to demonstrate engagement.

Professional Context

Nurses perform a variety of roles and their responsibilities as health care providers extend to the community. The decisions we make daily and in times of crisis often involve the balancing of human rights with medical necessities, equitable access to services, legal and ethical mandates, and financial constraints. In the event of a major accident or natural disaster, many issues can complicate decisions concerning the needs of an individual or group, including understanding and upholding rights and desires, mediating conflict, and applying established ethical and legal standards of nursing care. As a nurse, you must be knowledgeable about disaster preparedness and recovery to safeguard those in your care. As an advocate, you are also accountable for promoting equitable services and quality care for the diverse community.

Nurses work alongside first responders, other professionals, volunteers, and the health department to safeguard the community. Some concerns during a disaster and recovery period include the possibility of death and infectious disease due to debris and/or contamination of the water, air, food supply, or environment. Various degrees of injury may also occur during disasters, terrorism, and violent conflicts.

To maximize survival, first responders must use a triage system to assign victims according to the severity of their condition/prognosis in order to allocate equitable resources and provide treatment. During infectious disease outbreaks, triage does not take the place of routine clinical triage.

Trace-mapping becomes an important step to interrupting the spread of all infectious diseases to prevent or curtail morbidity and mortality in the community. A vital step in trace-mapping is the identification of the infectious individual or group and isolating or quarantining them. During the trace-mapping process, these individuals are interviewed to identify those who have had close contact with them. Contacts are notified of their potential exposure, testing referrals become paramount, and individuals are connected with appropriate services they might need during the self-quarantine period (CDC, 2020).

An example of such disaster is the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. People who had contact with someone who were in contact with the COVID-19 virus were encouraged to stay home and maintain social distance (at least 6 feet) from others until 14 days after their last exposure to a person with COVID-19. Contacts were required to monitor themselves by checking their temperature twice daily and watching for symptoms of COVID-19 (CDC, 2020). Local, state, and health department guidelines were essential in establishing the recovery phase. Triage Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in the case of COVID-19 focused on inpatient and outpatient health care facilities that would be receiving, or preparing to receive, suspected, or confirmed COVID- 19 victims. Controlling droplet transmission through hand washing, social distancing, self-quarantine, PPE, installing barriers, education, and standardized triage algorithm/questionnaires became essential to the triage system (CDC, 2020; WHO, 2020).

This assessment provides an opportunity for you to apply the concepts of emergency preparedness, public health assessment, triage, management, and surveillance after a disaster. You will also focus on evacuation, extended displacement periods, and contact tracing based on the disaster scenario provided.

Demonstration of Proficiency

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

  • Competency 1: Analyze health risks and health care needs among distinct populations.
    • Describe the determinants of health and the cultural, social, and economic barriers that impact safety, health, and disaster recovery efforts in a community.
  • Competency 2: Propose health promotion strategies to improve the health of populations.
    • Present specific, evidence-based strategies to overcome communication barriers and enhance interprofessional collaboration to improve disaster recovery efforts.
  • Competency 3: Evaluate health policies, based on their ability to achieve desired outcomes.
    • Explain how health and governmental policy affect disaster recovery efforts.
  • Competency 4: Integrate principles of social justice in community health interventions.
    • Explain how a proposed disaster recovery plan will lessen health disparities and improve access to community services.
  • Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication strategies to lead health promotion and improve population health.
    • Organize content with clear purpose/goals and with relevant and evidence-based sources (published within 5 years).
    • Slides are easy to read and error free. Detailed audio and speaker notes are provided. Audio is clear, organized, and professionally presented.

Note: Complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented.

Preparation

When disaster strikes, community members must be protected. A comprehensive recovery plan, guided by the MAP-IT (Mobilize, Assess, Plan, Implement, Track) framework, is essential to help ensure everyone’s safety. The unique needs of residents must be assessed to lessen health disparities and improve access to equitable services after a disaster. Recovery efforts depend on the appropriateness of the plan, the extent to which key stakeholders have been prepared, the quality of the trace-mapping, and the allocation of available resources. In a time of cost containment, when personnel and resources may be limited, the needs of residents must be weighed carefully against available resources.

In this assessment, you are a community task force member responsible for developing a disaster recovery plan for the Vila Health community using MAP-IT and trace-mapping, which you will present to city officials and the disaster relief team.

To prepare for the assessment, complete the Vila Health: Disaster Recovery Scenario simulation.

In addition, you are encouraged to complete the Disaster Preparedness and Management activity. The information gained from completing this activity will help you succeed with the assessment as you think through key issues in disaster preparedness and management in the community or workplace. Completing activities is also a way to demonstrate engagement.

Begin thinking about:

  • Community needs.
  • Resources, personnel, budget, and community makeup.
  • People accountable for implementation of the disaster recovery plan.
  • Healthy People 2020 goals and 2030 objectives.
  • A timeline for the recovery effort.

You may also wish to:

  • Review the MAP-IT (Mobilize, Assess, Plan, Implement, Track) framework, which you will use to guide the development of your plan:
    • Mobilize collaborative partners.
    • Assess community needs.
    • Plan to lessen health disparities and improve access to services.
    • Implement a plan to reach Healthy People 2020 goals or 2030 objectives.
    • Track community progress.
  • Review the assessment instructions and scoring guide to ensure that you understand the work you will be asked to complete.

Note: Remember that you can submit all, or a portion of, your draft recovery plan to Smarthinking Tutoring for feedback, before you submit the final version for this assessment. If you plan on using this free service, be mindful of the turnaround time of 24-48 hours for receiving feedback.

Note: If you require the use of assistive technology or alternative communication methods to participate in this activity, please contact DisabilityServices@capella.edu to request accommodations.

Instructions

Every 10 years, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion release information on health indicators, public health issues, and current trends. At the end of 2020, Healthy People 2030 was released to provide information for the next 10 years. Healthy People 2030 provides the most updated content when it comes to prioritizing public health issues; however, there are historical contents that offer a better understanding of some topics. Disaster preparedness is addressed in Healthy People 2030, but a more robust understanding of MAP-IT, triage, and recovery efforts is found in Healthy People 2020. For this reason, you will find references to both Healthy People 2020 and Healthy People 2030 in this course.

Complete the following:

  1. Develop a disaster recovery plan for the Vila Health community that will lessen health disparities and improve access to services after a disaster. Refer back to the Vila Health: Disaster Recovery Scenario to understand the Vila Health community.
    • Assess community needs.
    • Consider resources, personnel, budget, and community makeup.
    • Identify the people accountable for implementation of the plan and describe their roles.
    • Focus on specific Healthy People 2020 goals and 2030 objectives.
    • Include a timeline for the recovery effort.
  2. Apply the MAP-IT (Mobilize, Assess, Plan, Implement, Track) framework to guide the development of your plan:
    • Mobilize collaborative partners.
    • Assess community needs.
      • Use the demographic data and specifics related to the disaster to identify the needs of the community and develop a recovery plan. Consider physical, emotional, cultural, and financial needs of the entire community.
      • Include in your plan the equitable allocation of services for the diverse community.
      • Apply the triage classification to provide a rationale for those who may have been injured during the train derailment. Provide support for your position.
      • Include in your plan contact tracing of the homeless, disabled, displaced community members, migrant workers, and those who have hearing impairment or English as a second language in the event of severe tornadoes.
    • Plan to lessen health disparities and improve access to services.
    • Implement a plan to reach Healthy People 2020 goals and 2030 objectives.
    • Track and trace-map community progress.
  3. Develop a slide presentation of your disaster recovery plan with an audio recording of you presenting your assessment of the Vila Health: Disaster Recovery Scenario for city officials and the disaster relief team. Be sure to also include speaker notes.

Presentation Format and Length

You may use Microsoft PowerPoint (preferred) or other suitable presentation software to create your slides and add your voice-over along with speaker notes. If you elect to use an application other than PowerPoint, check with your instructor to avoid potential file compatibility issues.

Be sure that your slide deck includes the following slides:

  • Title slide.
    • Recovery plan title.
    • Your name.
    • Date.
    • Course number and title.
  • References (at the end of your presentation).

Your slide deck should consist of 10-12 content slides plus title and references slides. Use the speaker’s notes section of each slide to develop your talking points and cite your sources as appropriate. The speaker notes should match your recorded voice-over. Make sure to review the Microsoft PowerPoint tutorial for directions for inserting your speaker notes.

The following resources will help you create and deliver an effective presentation:

Supporting Evidence

Cite at least three credible sources from peer-reviewed journals or professional industry publications within the past 5 years to support your plan.

Graded Requirements

The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide, so be sure to address each point:

  • Describe the determinants of health and the cultural, social, and economic barriers that impact safety, health, and recovery efforts in the community.
    • Consider the interrelationships among these factors.
  • Explain how your proposed disaster recovery plan will lessen health disparities and improve access to community services.
    • Consider principles of social justice and cultural sensitivity with respect to ensuring health equity for individuals, families, and aggregates within the community.
  • Explain how health and governmental policy impact disaster recovery efforts.
    • Consider the implications for individuals, families, and aggregates within the community of legislation that includes, but is not limited to, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, and the Disaster Recovery Reform Act (DRRA).
  • Present specific, evidence-based strategies to overcome communication barriers and enhance interprofessional collaboration to improve the disaster recovery effort.
    • Consider how your proposed strategies will affect members of the disaster relief team, individuals, families, and aggregates within the community.
    • Include evidence to support your strategies.
  • Organize content with clear purpose/goals and with relevant and evidence-based sources (published within 5 years).
  • Slides are easy to read and error free. Detailed audio and speaker notes are provided. Audio is clear, organized, and professionally presented.
    • Develop your presentation with a specific purpose and audience in mind.
    • Adhere to scholarly and disciplinary writing standards and APA formatting requirements.