Concerns Regarding Physiological Needs of Disasters Victims Essay

Introduction

There occurs a different kind of disasters. There is always a need for immediate intervention in an occurrence of any form of disaster. Healthcare personnel, especially a nurse is essential when it comes to responding to the cases of a disaster occurrence. In the occurrence of a large-scale natural disaster, a public health nurse shows concern over various issues. Basing my argument and explanation on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which focuses on the needs of human beings, arranged in a pyramid, with the crucial needs forming the base of the pyramid, the paper shall create a succinct illustration on the matters to which a public health nurse is likely to respond with much concern. The nurse is likely to pay attention to the needs such as the physiological, safety and self-esteem needs of the victims among other needs.

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Physiological needs

The physiological needs of the victims should always form the base of the pyramid as far as the nurse's attention is concerned. Ensuring that the victims have access to good food and are able to get a proper sleep should be the major concern of a public health nurse. The overall health of the victims should always be of great concern to the nurse in question. The nurse should also be able to ensure that the victims have shelter, access to water and food as well as the proper healthcare as they form a crucial part for the wellbeing of a human being (Janeway et al, 2008).

Safety needs

The safety of the victims should be of great concern to avoid further injury to the victims. The public health nurse should be more involved in the evacuation process so as to ensure that the victims are moved to safety away from the site of the disaster. Another means of ensuring that the victims are kept safe is by ensuring that services such as housing are provided to them to keep them safe. Such services can be made available by asking for the external help, especially the financial aid.

Love/belonging

The nurse should also ensure that families are not disrupted, to avoid further trauma. The disruption can be avoided by ensuring that members of the same family are evacuated to the same place (Janeway et al, 2008). Keeping families together helps in providing some sense of belonging and love in the event of a disaster. Communities should also be made to stick together, as community resilience helps the victims to overcome any given disaster.

Esteem

The nurse should devise means of providing social support so as to help address the issue of self-esteem. The individual victims shall be able to cope with the reality of the limited resources. The victims should not be treated differently so as to make them realize that being affected does not make them different from others.

Self - actualization needs

Just as the self-esteem, the self-actualization needs occupy the top of the pyramid, meaning that they are affected by issues such as the physiological needs (McLeod,2007). The nurse should, therefore, tackle the needs which form the bottom of the pyramid to be able to address the concerns at the top such as self-actualization.

The timely arrival of a rescue squad saved the three-year-old boy from medicine misuse. Medicine misuse is the most significant error that the boy's family committed despite the professional prescription from the local pediatrician. The latter occurs when a person takes a legal prescription medication for a purpose other than the reason it was prescribed for. The neighbourhood nurse recommended that they give the child 15 mL of syrup of ipecac followed by 240 ml of water. However, the family ignored the nurse's prescription to locate an old bottle of ipecac given out by their local pediatrician many years ago to have on hand. This is an error since the drugs could have expired or otherwise, it was not meant for the child. They ought to have gone straight to the chemist to purchase 15 mL of syrup of ipecac without recycling the old bottle of ipecac from the store.

Accidental poisoning in children should be treated with syrup of ipecac. Taking a syrup of ipecac helps to initiate vomiting (Manoguerra et al 2005). Vomiting works to removes the ingested poisons from the digestive system of the child. The syrup of ipecac should be taken immediately after ingesting the poison before the poison gets absorbed into the circulatory system to weaken body cells and tissues. Besides, taking 240 mL of water after making the up of ipecac is imperative to clear any traces of poison within the digestive system. Lastly, the other important reason why ipecac is the most preferred medicine in this suspected poisoning is that it will prevent any digestion and absorption of the multiday poison. Usually, syrup of ipecac work by irritating the digestive tract and signals the nerves cells to cause vomiting and stop digestion. The medicine makes any elements within the digestive system to be treated as foreign materials unfit for the body (Manoguerra et al 2005).

References

Jakeway, C. C., LaRosa, G., Cary, A., & Schoenfisch, S. (2008). The role of public health nurses in emergency preparedness and response: A position paper of the association of state and territorial directors of nursing. Public Health Nursing, 25(4), 353-361.

Manoguerra, A. S., Cobaugh, D. J., & The Members of the Guidelines for the Management of Poisonings Consensus Panel. (2005). Guideline on the use of ipecac syrup in the out-of-hospital management of ingested poisons. Clinical Toxicology, 43(1), 1-10.

McLeod, S. (2007). Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Simply Psychology, 1.