When and Why Health Care Personnel Respond to a Disaster: The State of the Science

Abstract

Findings of this study could influence and strengthen policy making by emergency response planners, staffing coordinators, health educators, and health system administrators.

Responding to natural disasters vs. disease outbreaks: Do emergency medical service providers have different views?

“…During disasters, not everybody would be willing to come to work to provide service in conditions that could be highly unstable and unexpected [1,7,8,20]. Health care workers could be reluctant to come to work if doing so could pose a threat to their health and safety of themselves or their family members [21].…”

“…Health care workers could be reluctant to come to work if doing so could pose a threat to their health and safety of themselves or their family members [21]. The type of hazard is reported to be one of the major contributing factors on the willingness to come to work during disasters and public health emergencies [1]. A study performed by Ref.…”

“…The number and intensity of natural disasters over the last three decades have been unprecedented for the last century. Our planet is experiencing about 500 natural disasters annually compared with 120 in the early 1980s [1]. Similarly, public health emergencies such as pandemic disasters pose a similar threat to our globe [2].…”

“…Perception studies on reporting for duty show that, depending on the nature of the disaster, healthcare providers have shown different views toward intention to report to work and fulfill their job expectations. That is, healthcare workers are generally less willing to work during humancaused events and pandemic outbreaks than other disasters from natural events [1,7,8]. For instance, Connor (2014) found that 45%-58% of healthcare workers were willing to respond to a human-caused disaster such as a terrorist attack, 25%-82% were willing to respond to a pandemic, and 83%-90% were willing to respond to a mass casualty event such as a plane crash or a tornado.…”

Emergency imaging after a mass casualty incident: role of the radiology department during training for and activation of a disaster management plan

“…3 The reported annual number of natural MCIs alone has quadrupled in the past three decades, with some suggesting that a disaster occurs somewhere in the world every day, stressing the need to be prepared. 6 After the occurrence of a MCI, pre-hospital care on scene involves triaging victims into categories giving consideration to severity of injury, likelihood of survival and available resources. Those needing immediate medical attention in order to survive are coded T1 (tagged red), those needing further medical attention but who are able to wait are coded T2 (tagged yellow) and those with minor injuries, also called the "walking wounded", are coded T3 (tagged green).…”