In the past decade, 2.

6 billion people around the world have been affected by

earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. Nurses have been
and continue to be pivotal in safeguarding the public during and after these
disasters, as well as public health emergencies—most recently, the COVID-19
pandemic. They educate and protect people, engage with and build trust with the
community, help people prepare and respond, and foster resilience to help
communities fully recover. But fundamental reform is needed in nursing education,
practice, research, and policy across both health care and public health settings to
ensure that all nurses—from front-line professionals to researchers—have the
baseline knowledge, skills, abilities, and autonomy they need to protect
populations at greatest risk and improve the readiness, safety, and support of the
nursing workforce.
A disaster relief nurse needs to be ready for it all. This type of nursing is collaborative
and physical. Many volunteers do additional tasks like distributing clothing, providing
emotional support, or sweeping floors. In disaster response, nurses aren’t afraid to get
dirty — literally.

Professional preparation of nurses to manage disasters is critical to safe and

effective rescue and response. Nurses working in disaster settings must have clear
leadership, and disaster rescue policies to ensure they can react to disaster
situations (Li et al., 2017). Many nurses who have reported being a part of disaster
response teams experience psychological distress—exacerbated by lack of effective
management, communication mechanisms and resources (Mao, Fung, Hu, &
Loke, 2018). In 2019, the International Nursing Council (ICN) and the World Health
Organization (WHO) jointly proposed a framework for disaster care offering
statements on diagnoses, outcomes and interventions appropriate to disaster
response (ICN, 2019). These capture the physiological, psychological social and
environmental needs of patients and their families. However, there is limited
information to evaluate how nurses cope with disasters. There are also calls for us
to look more closely at how nurse experiences can be used to inform training
strategies and curricula which may be specifically designed to prepare nurses to
work effectively in disaster settings.

Professional nursing skills in disaster response are critical. In a time of significant

global warming (Schenk, 2019), natural disasters are increasing and earthquakes,
tsunami, volcanic activity, floods and landslides more commonplace. In just one
decade (2007 to 2017), human deaths from natural disasters are estimated at
60,000. During the more recent coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, nurses have been
key to the disaster response teams, relying on their clinical skills and on heuristics
so that they could adequately manage complex clinical demands in highly complex
and volatile situations. All nurses have to be responsive and they must be able to
provide effective disaster relief (Alpert et al., 2018).

What Does a Disaster Relief Nurse Do?

A disaster relief nurse provides the necessary care and treatment during an emergency, such as a
natural disaster, terrorist attack, or other crises that require an immediate medical response for
the community. In this position, you typically work with a relief group and travel to locations in
need of your services. Your primary responsibilities are to assist first responders and other health
care providers with treating injuries and illnesses. Your duties may also include helping to
stabilize an area and create a safe environment so you can provide medical care to patients. This
job requires excellent interpersonal, communication, and critical thinking skills, as well as the
ability to act quickly and remain calm in high-stress situations.

Roles and Responsibilities of Disaster Relief Nurses

A nurse’s role in emergency situations is primarily to provide care and treatment to
victims of natural disasters, such as floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Emergency
nursing duties include:

 Examining patients
 Caring for injuries
 Stabilizing critical patients
 Providing first aid and CPR
 Giving IV fluids
 Administering medications
Depending on the situation, you might end up treating patients in a healthcare facility or
in the field. Volunteers should prepare for the possibility of working in primitive
conditions. This may include having insufficient food, shelter, running water, supplies, or
other essentials.