Disaster management is a four-step process that requires all levels of government and

businesses to plan for, prepare for, respond to, and recover from man-made or natural
disasters. These activities are overseen by the Florida Department of Health. Local branches of
this department represent Florida's counties, and they follow a state-supported plan (Florida
Department of Health, 2018). Nurses are on the front lines of all emergency activities because
disaster management is strongly linked to healthcare. Nurses play an important role in all
phases of disaster response, with specific duties and responsibilities. First, nurses prepare
themselves and their institutions for disasters by studying about public health and acquiring the
essential skills (Veenema et al., 2016). They also disseminate this information throughout the
community, fostering emergency preparedness. Second, they represent the demands of
healthcare practitioners at the local, state, and federal levels in various drills, exercises, and
planning processes. Nurses also play an important role in the response phase, caring for victims
of disasters, providing indirect support to other professionals, covering shifts for colleague
nurses, and collecting and recording emergency data. Several documents address mass casualty
events, the most extensive of which is a planning checklist. This document outlines tactics,
ideas, and aspects that should be included in local government plans. Specific communication
routes, such as staff call-back protocols, are mentioned, for example (Florida Department of
Health, n.d.). Security and control considerations, as well as specific surge space expansion
operations, treatment systems, decontamination plans, staffing numbers, and supply lists, are
all addressed. Other publications provide extra planning and personnel resources in the event
of large casualties.