Question

How are natural disasters related to health and health care? Also... What are the main workforce challenges that the United States must grapple with? 200 word n less

Answer 1

Ans) Disaster: "Any occurrence that causes damage, ecological destruction, loss of human lives, or deterioration of health and health services on a scale sufficient to warrant an extraordinary response from out the affected community area"

- It can be natural or man-made disasters.

- Rapid and slow-onset.

- Natural disasters include droughts, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, heavy rains, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanoes.

• Natural disasters related to health & health care:

- Affects larger numbers of people, causing more economic losses, but causing proportionally fewer deaths.

- Biggest relative impact is on the poor in low- and middle-income countries.

- Cause damage to health systems and other infrastructure.

- Direct and indirect effects depend on type of disaster.

- Some effects are short-term such as death, others are long-lasting like mental problems.

• Very old, very young and very sick are most
vulnerable.

Health effects of natural disasters can be addressed by:

• Health situation assessed immediately.

• Triage system management- Colour coding system

Red- Emergency/ most urgent) immediate treatment

Yellow- urgent/ to be attended within 10 minutes

Green- Non urgent/ to he attended within an hour

Black- Dead

• Care for trauma cases
• Establishment of continuous disease surveillance
• Provision of food, water and shelter

Future challenges:

• Reducing negative health impact
• Developing and using standard approaches among all actors
• Responding with the most cost-effective approaches

The main workforce challenges that the United States must grapple with are:

- Shortage of health care professionals = need most productive use of existing resources & planning for human resources.
- Nurses should practice to the full extent of their knowledge & skills.
- Primary care physicians need training so they can adequately functions as "comprehensivist" to address needs of growing population with complex chronic conditions.
- Shortage of health care professionals trained in geriatrics, shortage of colleges who are trained in geriatrics needs to be addressed.
- Integration of racially and culturally diverse workforce.