Nurses play a valuable role in health care but they can also play an important role when disaster strikes. There are various tasks that a nurse can do to help any disaster situation, whether it is natural or man-made. A key job that a nurse can do is assessing patients. This can be done to determine how severe patients are from the disaster. Assessing patient’s helps doctors organize who they need to treat first. Things can get pretty hectic when a disaster occurs. It is important that the nurse remains calm and collected when assessing patients. Nurses also can’t hold be afraid to tell it like it is. If a patient is near death and has a low probability of survival, the nurse needs to make the decision to provide comfort and let the patient live out the remainder of their life. Nurses can also contribute by providing patients with first aid and medications. If people are in need of help but their injuries aren’t as extensive as others, a nurse can jump in and provide first aid. This could mean stabilizing a patient with a suspected spinal cord injury or tying off a gushing wound by providing pressure. These tasks can help save patient’s lives. Medication administration is also valuable in providing comfort to patients. Pain medications can be used to help alleviate immediate pain. When dealing with all of this commotion, a nurse needs to be able to step back and think about their own safety before jumping into something that can danger themselves.
The ANA Code of Ethics can present conflicting Provisions as a nurse has a duty to care for a patient yet, care for themselves. These two Provisions can conflict each other in times of disaster. In these types of situations, a nurse has to think about themselves and the issue at hand. If saving someone’s life is going to cost your own life, then that is not worth it. A nurse can only do some much in certain circumstances. It can be challenging for a nurse to make this decision. When a nurse spends their whole career helping people in need, these decisions do not get any easier. Sometimes, a nurse may need someone else to explain to them that helping someone in a certain situation can lead to harming themselves. The judgement is left up to the nurse as they should do what they feel comfortable doing. It would not be considered a breach in one code over another when they involve endangering yourself or the patient.
