Encouraging community nurses and nursing students to volunteer for American Red Cross disaster nursing services

As a result of the disaster response to hurricanes in the fall of 2005, the American Red Cross of Dallas (ARC) recognized a need for a greater pool of disaster trained volunteer nurses than currently existed. The question at hand, “Why weren't more nurses volunteering?” American Red Cross staff collaborated with the Office on Women's Health, Region VI to develop a needs assessment tool to identify influencers and barriers for nurses wishing to become American Red Cross disaster volunteers. In October 2006, a focus group of nursing administrators from schools and hospitals in the Dallas/Fort Worth area met to discuss the issues influencing nurses and nursing students. From this dialog, a set of issue-defining questions emerged. These questions were used to create an internet survey that was circulated within nursing schools in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex during December 2006 and January 2007. During the timeframe, a total of 103 internet surveys were received. The majority of respondents were nursing students with no experience or training in disaster volunteer services. Their responses identified sources of training information, willingness to volunteer as an American Red Cross nurse, factors influencing their decision to volunteer, and recommendations for increasing the number of disaster nurse volunteers.