Summary of Teaching Plan
The significance of the role that a nurse plays in disaster management (DM) is often overlooked yet is crucial to the safety and security of community members. Particularly, the promotion of safe behaviors needs to be mentioned as the primary goal of a community nurse in DM. While the issue is typically viewed as the area where adults perform the key function in safeguarding the community, the role of the younger population, particularly teenage students, should not be underestimated, either. Specifically, the way in which students may help locate the available exits and resources during a disaster, provide first aid to survivors after it occurs, and maintaining communication within the community consistently need to be addressed. By promoting the need to accept appropriate behaviors and develop a proper attitude toward DM among teenage students, one will be able to improve outcomes among disaster survivors and reduce injuries and fatal outcomes.
The teaching plan includes primarily offering students direct and concise guidelines regarding the appropriate behaviors during a disaster and the identification of actions to be taken. For instance, the ability to identify the available resources, the skill of contacting the local emergency department, and the capability of reaching a safe area to wait until the disaster is over are prioritized. By learning the specified information, students will develop the coping mechanism that will allow them not to panic but, instead, to act reasonably in the course of a disaster. Thus, their chances for survival with minimal damages increase. The specified plan will be detailed to the target demographic clearly and concisely, with appropriate visuals that they can take home to remember the guidelines properly.
Epidemiological Rationale for Topic
Although disasters might not occur as often as certain diseases, they affect a significant proportion of the population, injuring its vulnerable members especially hard. Furthermore, unlike diseases and disorders, which can be located at the earliest stages of their development, controlled and prevented, natural disasters occur randomly (Tuladhar, Yatabe, Dahal, & Bhandary, 2014). For the most part, they cannot be prevented and require fast actions (Roudini, Khankeh, & Witruk, 12017). Therefore, it is essential to keep the vulnerable demographic alert and ensure that they are provided with the necessary resources.
The lack of awareness is, however, not as disturbing as the absence of concern regarding the threat among the representatives of the specified demographic. Teenage students tend to dismiss the possibility of a disaster as something that occurs quite rare and, therefore, is unlikely to affect them (Khorram-Manesh, 2017). The specified attitude is especially dangerous in the contemporary era of environmental concerns and the surge in disasters, including both artificial and natural ones (Bush, 2014). Without the ability to recognize a threat and choose between the available strategies for addressing it, teenage students will be left entirely helpless.
In addition, the propensity among teenage students toward viewing their role in DM as minor is a reason for concern. While literally, everyone is capable of contributing to the mitigation of negative effects of disasters to a certain extent, the importance of teenage participants is often omitted. As a result, members of the identified age group lose interest in DM and the process of learning the associated strategies and rules (Pfefferbaum, Pfefferbaum, & Van Horn, 2018). Therefore, stressing the importance of teenage participants and the roles that they play in DM will help prevent a significant number of accidents and injuries when facing an actual disaster.
Evaluation of Teaching Experience
The process of educating the target audience about the significance of DM and the role that they could play in it was predominantly positive. Certain barriers, however, had to be addressed during the teaching process. Specifically, students displayed a lack of interest at first, considering the problems of DM not worth paying attention to. Even after learning about the personal experiences of DM from narrators, the students were somewhat disinterested in the issue. The specified phenomenon could be explained by the absence of a firsthand experience of the subject matter. However, the issue was finally handled after media with which the learners were familiar was used. Particularly, screenshots and scenes from disaster movies helped gain the attention of students. Afterward, the conversation was steered in the direction that showed the probability of a similar event occurring in the setting of the students’ school or home. Without scaring the audience into listening, yet making them cautious and wary enough, the narrators proceeded with the description of the problem.
The part involving interactions between the learners and the narrators could be seen as the most successful part of the program since all members of the target audience were evidently willing to participate. They shared their experience of and knowledge about accidents, their prevention, and management, which provided the platform for moving to the next topic, which concerned the use of community resources. Using interactive tools, students found out about key organizations providing disaster management opportunities and resources. Finally, the community potential was discovered in the course of the communication. The learners showed the willingness to share their newly acquired knowledge and skills with their friends and family members. Furthermore, they were evidently willing to use social media for information sharing and management. Therefore, the overall teaching experience could be deemed as rather positive.
Community Response to Teaching
The members of the local community have been responding positively to the teaching process so far as well. With the emphasis on the safety of children, adult citizens became concerned about the lack of DM readiness within the area. Consequently, the process of information sharing was supported by adults. The identified outcome is especially important since the target demographic, which consists of teenagers, requires the assistance of adults to utilize the available resources and engage in the process of DM successfully. With the active support of adults, they will be able to learn how to protect themselves against key threats during the DM process.
One should note, however, that the lack of involvement among local organizations associated with DM is quite unfortunate. It would be regretful to waste the potential of the program by failing to encourage a connection between DM organizations and community members. For this reason, the further management of the program will involve the active promotion of cooperation between citizens and DM organizations in the vicinity. The latter will be able to provide people with the resources required for preventing damages caused by possible disasters. Furthermore, contacting the specified organizations, as well as local authorities, will be crucial at the time when DM support is required.
Thus, despite the overall success of the program, further changes will have to be made in communication and resource management. By establishing contact with local DM agencies, one will be able to ensure an even greater level of safety for the people living in the area. With more elaborate management of the community resources and the support of local authorities, a comprehensive program for training teenagers and enhancing DM across the community, in general, will be possible.
Areas of Strengths and Areas of Improvement
The program described above has contributed to the improvement of possible patient outcomes in case a disaster occurs in the community. Particularly, the needs of one of the most vulnerable populations, particularly teenagers, have been addressed extensively. The specified demographic has recognized the importance of safety measures and drills, as well as DM, in general. As a result, teenage students will be able to acquire the knowledge and skills that will help them not to panic during a disaster but, instead, search for available assistance and resources. Furthermore, the possibility of the specified population being injured during the DM process has been reduced significantly.
The adoption of the latest information technology tools for the appropriate management of communication can also be seen as a doubtless advantage of the program. The use of social networks for disseminating knowledge and keeping target audiences aware of essential DM issues is especially important since the identified tool is a crucial component of daily communication among teenagers. Thus, the focus on social networks has provided a chance to encourage teenagers to build awareness levels.
However, the program also has several weaknesses. For example, the lack of support from local DM organizations is a major omission. Since the identified agencies provide a plethora of tools and resources for enhancing DM, further cooperation with them is required. Once local DM entities give the program the weight required to be acknowledged on a statewide level, the promotion campaign will spread even further and embrace a larger audience. Consequently, opportunities for ensuring safety among a larger number of teenagers will be discovered.
References
Bush, E. M. (2014). Youth can play an important role in disaster preparedness and recovery. Web.
Khorram-Manesh, A. (2017). Youth are our future assets in emergency and disaster management. Bulletin of Emergency & Trauma, 5(1), 1-3.
Pfefferbaum, B., Pfefferbaum, R. L., & Van Horn, R. L. (2018). Involving children in disaster risk reduction: the importance of participation. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 9(Suppl. 2), 1-6. Web.
Roudini, J., Khankeh, H. R., & Witruk, E. (2017). Disaster mental health preparedness in the community: A systematic review study. Health Psychology Open, 4(1), 1-12. Web.
Tuladhar, G., Yatabe, R., Dahal, R. K., & Bhandary, N. P. (2014). Knowledge of disaster risk reduction among school students in Nepal. Geomatics, Natural Hazards, and Risk, 5(3), 190-207. Web.