should australian disaster team deployments include a nurse leader?
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doi:10.1016/j.aenj.2011.09.021
Abstracts
Should Australian disaster team deployments include anurse leader?
Angela Jackson1
Cairns Base Hospital, Department of Emergency Medicine,Queensland 4879, AustraliaKeywords: Disaster; Christchurch earthquake; Nursingleader; Emergency nursing
E-mail address: [email protected].
Introduction: On 23 February 2011, after theChristchurch earthquake and requested by the NewZealand Government, the Australian Government deployeda 30 person Queensland Australian Medical AssistanceTeam (AusMAT) to Christchurch. This was the first AusMATdeployment where a nursing leader was identified priorto deployment and was actively involved in overall teamleadership
Aim: The aim of this presentation is to describe the ben-efit of deploying emergency nurses to disasters and havinga pre identified nurse leader.
Findings: The AusMAT was deployed planning to provideextra capacity for the Christchurch Hospital. Upon arrivalinto Christchurch, the team were re tasked to setup andcommence operating a tented field medical facility. Thiswas located in the east of the city where there was signifi-cant damage and no power, water or sewerage. Aftershockswere felt every few hours. In a week the team treated 642patients.
The emergency nurses, all of who were experienced prac-titioners, were pivotal in the success of overall facilitymanagement and patient flow. In this disaster setting emer-gency nurses showed leadership, flexibility and their abilityto work as a team.
With the deployment of any medical team, nurses arelikely to make up more than half of the deployed personnel.Emergency nurses in particular are a valuable asset in thedisaster setting due to their wide variety of skills, their train-ing within chaotic environments and their ability to work ina large team. It would appear logical therefore that theywould be represented at a leadership level.
Conclusion: It is recommended that a nurse leader shouldbe included in any future AusMAT deployment An emergency
nurse would be an ideal candidate where the situation isunpredictable and chaotic.doi:10.1016/j.aenj.2011.09.020
1 Australian Medical Assistance Team (AusMAT) Nurse LeaderChristchurch earthquake deployment.
S7
light nursing and midwifery in Australia
enevieve Brideson
Flinders University, GPO Box 2100 Adelaide, SA 5001,ustraliaeywords: Australian; Aviation nursing; Flight nursing;viation midwifery; Computer mediated communication;ompetency; Continuing professional development
-mail address: [email protected] Flight Nurses (AFN) strive to provide safe,
ffective, quality midwifery care that is evidence based andeets the requirements of high risk pregnant women and
heir babies. This highly specialised role combines a mix ofoth hospital and pre hospital environments whereby auton-my and competence go hand in hand. The scope of practicef AFN is complex and extended purely due to the logistics ofanaging patients alone in the back of an aircraft at 25,000
eet.There is a dearth of previous research investigating how
FN maintain currency of their clinical midwifery skills andnowledge, indeed any area of their practice. The abundantiterature that examines the maintenance of competencey nursing and midwifery professionals fails to look at theviation context.
The use of qualitative case study design enabled theesearcher to examine the ways ten AFN maintain currentlinical midwifery skills and knowledge. A single embed-ed case study design was utilised to enable the researchero describe, understand and explain how this is achievedy these Flight Nurses. The use of computer mediatedommunication enabled the researcher to interview thearticipants using email as the electronic medium. Thisacilitated the recruitment of Australia wide participationor the study. Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysisas used to interpret and understand the findings of the
nterviews.The overall objective of this research was to investi-
ate how current clinical midwifery knowledge and skillsre maintained by AFN and to establish an understanding of