Disaster Nursing
MODULE 1: The Philippine Disaster and Risk Profile
The natural and man-made disaster is not
new, but they are global in nature, rate,
type, and totality of the environment is
increasing, there is a complex human
emergency leading to population
migration violence, and infectious disease
outbreaks
The impact of disasters on healthcare
systems is immense, spanning all levels of
society and the capacities of both official
and civilian response. Nurses play an
important role in disaster management
Disaster Nursing will contribute to the goal
of ensuring that every nurse is prepared in
emergency. It is critical that all nurses are
aware of the consequences of natural and
man-made disasters so that we are
prepared to respond if necessary
The Philippines, with its 7,100 islands, is
one of the countries that is most
vulnerable to natural disasters in the
world. Earthquakes, typhoons, flooding,
volcanic eruptions, and landslides are all
common occurrences that pose a
significant hazard to our fellow citizens.
Since the dawn of time, disaster has been
a part of the human experience, inflicting
early death, diminished quality of life,
dislocation, and altered health condition
The Philippines is located inside the Pacific
Ring of Fire, a 40-thousand-kilometer-long
horseshoe-shaped fault zone in the Pacific
Ocean that is prone to earthquakes and
volcanic eruptions. Aside from
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the
region is affected by flooding caused by
high rainfall brought by the southwest
monsoon and a low-pressure area, causing
damage to many livelihoods. Drought or El
Niño caused roughly 12.8 trillion Philippine
pesos in damage as a result of natural
catastrophes or events in the Philippines/
Republic Act 10121
• An act strengthening the Philippine
disaster risk reduction and
management system, providing for
the national disaster risk reduction
and management framework and
institutionalizing the national
disaster risk reduction and
management plan, appropriating
funds therefore and for other
purposes
National Disaster Risk Reduction and
Management Council (NDRRMC)
• Highest organized and authorized
body for Disaster Risk Reduction
and Management (DRRM) in the
Philippines
• Established by virtue of Republic
Act 10121 in 2010, the NDRRMC is
composed of various government,
non-government, civil sector, and
private sector organizations
• The NDRRMC is vested with the
overall policy-making coordination,
integration supervision, monitoring
and evaluation functions focusing
on DRRM
CONCEPTS AND TYPES OF DISASTER 2 CATEGORIES OF DISASTERS
Disaster 1. Natural – caused by natural or
environmental forces
• A serious disruption of the
2. Man-made or anthropogenic –
functioning of the community or a
human generated
society at any scale due to
hazardous events interacting with Natural Disasters
conditions of exposure,
• A result of an ecological disruption
vulnerability, and capacity, leading
or threat that exceeds the
to one or more of the following:
adjustment capacity of the affected
o Human, material, economic,
community
and environmental losses, and
• Are the consequences of the
impact
intersection of natural hazards and
Health Disaster human activity
• Includes earthquakes, floods,
• A catastrophic event that results in
tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanic
casualties that overwhelm the
eruptions, ice storms, tsunamis,
healthcare resources in the
and other geological and
community and may result in a
meteorological phenomena
sudden surge of patients
Geophysical Disaster
Health care providers characterize
disasters by what they do to people - The • Tsunamis, volcanoes, landslides
consequences on health and health care and other mass movements
resources in the community • Floods (including glacial lake
outburst floods) and landslide dam
Hospitals and other health care facilities
may further classify disasters as: failures
Meteorological
External
• Caused by extreme weather such as
• Are those that do not affect the
rain, drought, snow, extreme heat
hospital infrastructure but tax
or cold, ice or wind. Violent, sudden
hospital resources due to numbers
and damaging alteration in the
of patients or type of injuries
atmosphere associated with,
Internal created by, or touching earth’s
atmosphere, particularly the
• Cause disruption of normal hospital
weather-forming processes
function due to injuries or deaths of
• Blizzards, cyclones, droughts,
hospital personnel or damage to
hailstorms, heat waves, hurricanes
the facility itself, as with a hospital
fire, power failure or chemical spill Hydrological

• An extreme event associated with

water occurrence, movement and
distribution, hydrological hazards
 include droughts and flooding and
related events
• Hydrological hazards and their
Man-Made Disasters
impacts are associated with climate
variability, demographic trends,
land-cover change, and other
causative factors and could be
exasperated by global climate
change
• The increase in greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere will continue
leading to global warming and
intensification of the hydrological
cycle, making hydrological extreme
studies more complex and
Terrorism
challenging
Climatological
• Events that are brought about by
drastic fluctuations of climate
states and variabilities
• Or these are phenomena that are a
result of climate functions that shift
outside of their normal state due to
different factors that impact the
climate
Biological
• Are natural scenarios involving
disease, disability or death on a
large scale among humans, animals
and, plants due to microorganisms
like bacteria or viruses or toxins
Biological Disasters may be in the form of:
1. Epidemic – affecting a
Technological
disproportionately large number of
individuals within a population,
community or region at the same
time, example cholera
2. Pandemic – is an epidemic that
spreads across a large region, that
is, a continent or even worldwide of
existing, emerging or re-emerging
diseases and pestilences
• Man-made disasters have an
element of human intent,
negligence or error involving a
failure of a man-made system, as
opposed to natural disasters
resulting from natural hazards
• Such man-made disasters are
crime, arson, civil disorder,
terrorism war, biological/chemical
threat, cyber-attacks
• The use of force or violence against
persons or property in violation of
the criminal laws of the United
States for purposes of intimidation,
coercion, or ransom
• Terrorist often use threats to create
fear among the public to try to
convince citizens that their
government is powerless to
prevent terrorism and to get
immediate publicity for their
causes
• Acts of terrorism range from
threats of terrorism,
assassinations, kidnappings,
hijackings, bomb scares and
bombings, and cyber arracks, to the
use of chemical, biological and
nuclear weapons
• Technological disaster is an event
caused by a malfunction of a
technological structure and/or
some human error in controlling or
handling the technology
 • Examples of technological
disasters, such as the case of the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power
Station in Japan and previous
accidents in Chernobyl and Three
Mile Island. Fireworks or explosion
such as the Station Nightclub fire in
Warwick, Rhode Island, which was
caused by pyrotechnics
malfunction
Transitional Human Shelter
• Which people can reside for up to
three years before moving into
permanent housing
• They often consist of a
prefabricated house and have been
criticized due to problems of
sustainability and cultural
appropriateness
TRENDS AND PATTERNS OF DISASTERS
Phases of Disaster
a. Pre-Disaster/Pre-Impact (before)
b. Impact (during)
c. Post Impact (After)
Pre-Disaster/Pre-Impact (before)
• Before a disaster to reduce the
potential for human, material, or
environmental losses caused by
hazards and to ensure that these
losses are minimized when the
disaster strikes
• Prevention and mitigation reducing
the risk of disasters involves
activities, which either reduce or
modify the scale and intensity of
the threat faced or by improving
the conditions of elements at risk
Planning/Preparedness
• Preparedness refers to the
proactive planning efforts designed
to structure the disaster response
prior to its occurrence
• It encompasses evaluating
potential vulnerabilities and
propensity for a disaster to occur
Warning/Forecasting
• This is the process of monitoring
the situation or events to look for
indicators that predict the location,
timing, and magnitude of future
disasters
• In communities or areas known to
be vulnerable to slow-onset
hazards, and passing the
knowledge of the pending hazard
to people in harm’s way
• To be effective, warnings must be
related to mass education and
training of the population who
know what actions they must take
when warned
Impact (during)
Mitigation/Emergency Management or
Response
Mitigation
• Disaster mitigation measures are
those that eliminate or reduce the
impacts and risks of hazards
through proactive measures taken
before an emergency or disaster
occurs
• Measures are taken to reduce the
harmful effects of the disasters by
attempting to limit its impact on
human health community function
and economic infrastructure
Emergency Management or Response
• Is the actual implementation of the
disaster plan
• Is the organization of activities used
to address the event, the response
phase focuses primarily on
emergency relief, saving lives,
providing first aid, minimizing and
restoring damaged systems such as
communications, transportation,
electricity and providing care and
basic life requirements to victims
Post Impact (after)
Recovery
• Used to describe the activities that
encompass the three overlapping
phases of emergency relief,
rehabilitation, and reconstruction
Rehabilitation/Reconstruction
• Are at the heart of the disaster
recovery phase
• The rehabilitation and
reconstruction activities, which
follow the disaster response stage,
aim at achieving long-term
recovery
• Disaster recovery is a very
significant stage in the disaster
management cycle, as this is when
the support of governmental and
non-governmental agencies in the
disaster aftermath usually starts
receding and the affected
community has to fend for itself
• At this stage, the role of the
community and self-help groups
becomes paramount since they can
make or mark the crucial link
between disaster response and
disaster recovery
Evaluation
• Is essential and must be conducted
to determine what worked and
what did not work and what
specific problems, issues and
challenges were identified
Disasters are frequently categorized based
on their onset, impact and duration
Factors that influence the impact of the
disaster in the community include the
nature of event, time of the day or year,
health and age characteristics of the
population affected and availability of
resources
Classification of terms in the field of
disaster science distinguishes between
hazards, disasters and risk
Hazard – is a potential threat to humans
and their welfare. Presents the possibility
of the occurrence of a disaster caused by
natural phenomena
Risk – is the actual exposure of something
of human value and is often measured as
the product of probability and loss
Disasters affect the health status of a
community in the following ways
o Disasters may cause premature
deaths, illnesses and injuries in the
affected community, generally
exceeding the capacity of the local
healthcare system
o Disasters may destroy the local
health care infrastructures which
therefore will be unable to respond
to the emergency
o Disasters may create
environmental imbalances
increasing the risk of
communicable disease and
 environmental air, soil, and water
hazards
o Disasters may affect the
psychological-emotional and social
well being of the population in the
affected community, depending on
the specific nature of the disaster,
the response may be fear, anxiety
depression, widespread panic or
exacerbation of pre-existing mental
health problems
o Disasters may cause shortages of
food and can cause severe
nutritional deficiencies
o Disasters may cause large
population movements (refugees)
creating a burden on the other
healthcare systems and
communities
o Disaster frameworks for response
are increasing shaped by
globalization , changing world
dynamics social inequality and
sociodemographic trends