A Conceptual Analysis of Disaster with Implications for Emergency Nursing Practice

Article Outline

• Purpose
• Design
• Setting/Sample
• Methodology
• Results
• Conclusions
• Copyright

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Purpose 

Nurses must be actively involved in the development of effective health care systems to prevent and mitigate the effects of disaster. Fundamental to this activity is a need for a universal understanding of the terminology used to describe the events that overwhelm and suspend the productive function of a community or society. The purpose of this research was to provide a scholarly analysis of the term disaster to foster disaster nursing theory development. In doing so, the concept of disaster, as it relates to the emerging specialty of disaster nursing, is defined, and examples of nursing practice within the developing framework of the disaster nursing paradigm are provided.

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Design 

This critical examination was based on conceptual analysis frameworks outlined by recognized nursing scholars in conceptual-analysis and theory development. Practice implications were adapted from a nationally accepted disaster life support course and from nursing experts in the development of emergency and disaster preparedness core competencies.

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Setting/Sample 

The analysis and associated practice implications were aimed at emergency nurses caring for disaster victims in field, community, or institutional settings.

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Methodology 

Root origins of the word disaster were analyzed and placed in context in association with modern use of the terminology. References to the concept were gleaned and analyzed from artistic and scientific literature. Antecedents, defining attributes, consequences, and empirical references associated with disaster were determined. Practice implications for clinical disaster nursing were constructed following a synthesis of data from the concept analysis and examples in the clinical literature.

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Results 

A definition of disaster as it relates to the emerging specialty of disaster nursing was conceptualized and implications for practice were explicated.

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Conclusions 

Nurses who practice disaster care, as well as those who foster scholarship and research in this dynamic field, must work from the same theoretical language base to be effective as health practitioners and leaders in this new area. This analysis provides the beginning structure for further conceptual refinement and subsequent construction of a speculative framework through which practice in this exciting and important specialty can grow and flourish.