Learning for life: Disaster management

Life Long Learning and Continuing Professional Development are the processes
by which professionals, such as nurses, develop and improve their practice.

There are many ways to address CPD: formally, through attending courses,
study days and workshops, or informally, through private study and reflection.
Reading articles in professional journals is a good way of keeping up-to-date
with what is going on in the field of practice, but reflecting on and
identifying what you have learnt is not always easy. These questions are
designed to help you to identify what you have learnt from studying the
article. They will also help you to clarify what you can apply to practice,
what you did not understand and what you need to explore further.

1. It is important to think of disasters in terms of:

a) Something that just happens
b) A whole cycle of events
c) Something that has to be dealt with when it happens
d) An inevitable accident

2. What often lags behind the emphasis of physical and technical
dimensions?

a) The human aspects
b) The financial aspects
c) The legal aspects
d) The moral aspects

3. What is an organisation’s most important asset?

a) Finance
b) Premises/land
c) Plant and equipment
d) People

4. From which disaster were OH managers applying lessons learnt?

a) Clapham
b) Hatfield
c) Southall
d) Paddington

5. What should be built into OH disaster contingency plans?

a) Reactive psychosocial support
b) Proactive psychosocial support
c) Proactive debriefing
d) Reactive debriefing

6. Following Paddington, how many people needed debriefing?

a) 100
b) 500
c) 1,000
d) 5,000

7. In order to meet the needs arising from the disaster what was
suspended?

a) Staff annual leave
b) Staff training
c) Revision of company policies
d) Non-urgent work

8. Information about the psychological and physical impacts on trauma was
distributed to officers

a) Before shifts began
b) At the end of shifts
c) 24 hours after the incident
d) 72 hours after the incident

9. What remains contentious about psychological debriefing?

a) Culture, timing and effectiveness
b) Culture, nature and effectiveness
c) Timing, culture and nature
d) Nature, timing and effectiveness

10. Good disaster planning should embrace

a) Technical, physical and mental aspects
b) Technical, physical and psychosocial aspects
c) Technical, mental and psychosocial aspects
d) Physical, mental and psychosocial aspects

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1.
b); 2. a); 3. d)  in light of
questions 2 and 3 discuss with your colleagues and other departmental managers
their perceptions of what are the most important company assets and how well
prepared the company is to deal with these assets in a major disaster.4. c);
5. b) Carry out a literature search and revise your knowledge on Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder or obtain a copy of Rogers P, Liness S. (2000) Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder Nursing Standard 14, 22. 6. c)  Reread the article "Calming Force" Carmel L, Cook J,
Peerby M, Occupational Health March 2000 vol. 52 no.3. 7. d); 8. b); 9. d);
10. b) Carry out a literature search on "Disaster Planning" or
visit www.homeoffice.gov.uk/epd
and study their site on Emergency Planning.