Two large earthquakes have recently struck Haiti. Haiti is a poor country that did not have the luxury of earthquake resistant buildings.
Some report that the buildings were in danger of collapsing, even without the earthquakes. As rescue efforts are continuing weeks after the earthquakes it is estimated that 200,000 Haitian people were killed.
In addition, thousands of people have suffered injury and the count of the wounded is rising. This has resulted in tens of thousands of US nurses to sign up to assist these people.
While the people need the medical care, there is a ton of red tape surrounding Haiti right now as officials are struggling to reestablish order. The response from the nurses has lead to their outstanding reputation of willingness to serve and sacrifice for the welfare of other people.
However, officials warn nurses to take caution, patience, and understanding with the red tape and to follow the guidelines. In the long run, the structure will be vital to providing proper health care to the entire population.
The eager nurses realize that they cannot just fly over to Haiti and begin helping people. Even though the wait if frustrating, they realize that they cannot throw out Haiti's policies and go.
They know that it will only intensify the commotion and disorder, which will not help the most people in the end. However, many already have their bags packed and ready to go.
Haiti had very little well-organized health structure before the earthquake. However, now their medical system has been devastated.
The few nurse groups that have been sent over to Haiti have had to set up emergency care in the middle of soccer fields, in the airport, and at the US Embassy. They have also been helping to staff the hospitals as many of the previous personnel were killed in the earthquakes.
Many of the nurses signed up to go to Haiti are professionally trained for disaster relief regardless of whether they work for governmental of non-governmental organizations. The nurses that have already been sent over have had extensive experience in Haiti already.
They were part of thee IMSURT and DMAT teams through Partners in Health, which is a Massachusetts-based organization designed for international work that has been involved in Haiti for many years. IMSURT and DMAT members are known to be very highly trained people who are on call for an emergency and ready to go 24/7.
These experts have current passports, immunizations, and bags packed with what they know they will need. In addition to food, clothes, and hygiene necessities the nurses pack medical supplies.
At this time, Haiti has a shortage of food so it is important that the nurses do not add to the burden of feeding the Haitian people. Medical supplies are also short of supply.
Red Cross is not sending nurses to work on the hospital teams in Haiti so much as they are sending first responders for emergencies and interpreters to help the organization of the medical system. Nurses who are interested in going to Haiti are encouraged to sign up through the Center for International Disaster Information.
The information that they will ask for includes names and specialties such as languages. These specialties are vital as officials are striving to put together teams to go to Haiti.
Officials also encourage the nurses who are on the waiting list to aid Haitians who evacuate Haiti to America. They also need help with calling people to collect information about people who want to donate medical supplies and information about the planes delivering people and supplies.
Nurses and officials alike would like the public to know that often the equipment donated, while nice, it is often only useful for rare procedures. It is more useful to donate something more basic such as bandages or providing vitamins for the people.
The biggest medical issue that nurses are facing at this time, besides poor medical structure, is the infections in the wounded. These infections have resulted in thousands of amputations because of lack of supplies and sanitary conditions.
While the nurses want to provide the same medical care that is offered in the US, they cannot because of few resources at this time. There will be plenty of work for medical personal for a long time in Haiti.
Author Resource:-
Tom Selwick has worked as a traveling nurse for the last 16 years. He has worked in many local clinics and the ER and recommends looking into becoming a travel nurse.
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