The Emergency Nursing Department attached to the College of Nursing at the Christian Medical College (CMC) here is organising a two-day State-level conference on disaster management beginning on Friday.
According to conference secretary professor T S Ravikumar, nursing teachers and staff from various health institutions from across the State would participate in the meet.
The focus of the meet is to equip nurses with current knowledge and prepare them for providing efficient and good care to people affected by disasters. The nursing faculty should develop competencies to handle critical eventualities both in hospitals as well as in the community, Ravikumar pointed out.
Quoting the world disaster report 2010, Ravikumar said over 300 million people were affected by natural disasters every year. “Nursing plays a pivotal role in handling mass causality incidences and preparing the community for any catastrophe,” Ravikumar said.
While some professionals are trained in this field, others may lack the critical knowledge and experience needed to effectively perform under stressful conditions, he noted.
“Since the CMC college of nursing is a WHO-collaborated centre for nursing and midwifery, we have taken the lead in hosting the first-of-its-kind conference to prepare nurses to tackle disasters with a multi-disciplinary approach,” Ravikumar said.
The goal is to impart clear, concise and precise training standards to ensure competency in nursing workforce, he pointed out. The delegates would be able to gain an understanding of the nursing competencies in disaster management, develop a customised hospital emergency response plan and develop a community based emergency response plan, Ravikumar added.
The topics that would be presented by the experts during the conference, in the field of disaster management would include triage in disaster, hazard vulnerability assessment, GIS techniques, building protocols in community and hospital preparedness.
It would also include pediatric emergencies, burns management in bomb blast and fire situations, crisis communication, extrication and evacuation. The meet conference would also have hands on demonstrations and skill presentations on rescue, fire management and hospital-based mock drills.
The conference would be inaugurated by Dr D J Christopher, associate director of CMC at Paul Brand Building of the hospital campus on Friday morning.