Disaster Response in Europe
The important goals of disaster and mass casualty incident (MCI) response are to protect and to save life. When a disaster strikes a population, people expect that leaders, local authorities,…
EMERGENCY MEDICINE
Disaster Response in the United States
Response to emergencies and disasters for the protection of life, health, safety, and the preservation of property is a government responsibility. In the United States, governors, not the president, are…
Ethical Issues in Disaster Medicine
Medical practitioners and health officials train for decades to provide run-of-the-mill health services. How should their choices change in times of disaster, that is, during “a serious disruption of the…
Children and Disaster
Children, along with the elderly and pregnant women, are the most vulnerable populations in disasters. In developing countries, children also make up a disproportionate percentage of the population, as exemplified…
Psychological Impact of Disaster on Displaced Populations and Refugees of Multiple Traumas
This chapter is designed to examine the impacts of disaster on displaced populations and refugees of multiple trauma events. The aims therefore are to highlight the processes of psychological triage,…
Role of Hospitals in a Disaster
By definition, the hospital is an institution providing medical and surgical treatment and nursing care for sick or injured people. The word hospital comes from the Latin hospes , signifying…
Disaster and Climate Change
Acknowledgments The author thanks Kingkarn Waiyanak for the literature search and retrieval and Glenn K. Shingledecker for his help in editing the manuscript. Introduction Climate change, consequent to the phenomenon…
Complex Emergencies
Characterization of complex emergencies The characterization of complex emergencies has evolved over time, with different individuals and different organizations favoring particular definitions to highlight specific characteristics. However, there are important…
Disaster Nursing
Nurses, as an integral part and the largest component of the health care team, must be prepared for disaster situations. Disasters occur all over the world, sometimes with warning and…
Role of Emergency Medicine in Disaster Management
Emergency medicine (EM) is optimally suited to lead the health care response in the hours following a disaster. By routinely providing the front line of hospital care for acutely ill…
