Public health preparedness, response and recover: Lessons learned through leadership and collaboration: Part II

Background:  A state of disaster readiness requires that public health nurses are prepared to meet leadership challenges, work with stakeholders to ensure capacity to respond to disasters but healthcare nursing and public health nursing generally do not intersect.  How can public health nurses effectively collaborate with the healthcare system?

Description:  This interactive session will examine areas of collaboration between public health emergency preparedness and the healthcare system.  Collaboration at the local, state and federal levels in an effort to enhance critical infrastructure related to emergency response will be discussed.  Public health nurses are uniquely positioned in the community and bring leadership, management, policy, planning, and practice expertise to disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.  Connections made between public health and healthcare ahead of a disaster establish linkages and networks vital to the development of disaster preparedness plans.  Concepts of public health and disaster response nursing may be foreign to nurses working in a traditional healthcare facility.  Equally implementing medical surge plans may be unfamiliar to public health nurses.  Both need a common language and operating platform prior to a disaster.

Lessons Learned:  Collaborative engagement between public health and healthcare must begin well ahead of a disaster response.

Implications: Participants will leave the session with strategies to engage the hospital based nursing peers in disaster preparedness planning and exercise activities.