400847 Role of Emergency Medical Services Assignment Sample

Surveillance and Disaster Planning

Introduction to Role of Emergency Medical Services

Over the year, disaster has proven as a crucial event which shapes the countries legislation, policies, planning, and practices. While many disasters had led towards substantial changes in terms of planning, preparedness, and consequences management on which government has been focusing more on it in recent years. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) defined disaster preparedness as “measures adapted to prepare and reduce the effectiveness of the disaster” (IFRC, n.d). The assessment aims to present a deep understanding of disaster preparedness, complexities related to it, and develop overall learning regarding how to act.

Disaster Preparedness

Disaster preparedness includes concrete research- based set of actions which are considered as precautionary measures during the time of disaster. It provides a platform to design effective, accurate and synchronised planning and reduces the chance of duplication and increases the overall effectiveness of the National Societies, household, and community members. According to IFRC, disaster is grouped into two categories; natural disaster, which is naturally occurred caused either by rapid or slow-onset event and man-made disaster which are events caused by humans (IFRC, n.d)

During the video analysis, the disaster can be concluded as an earthquake within a magnitude of around 6.0-7.0. Through the video footage inside the hall, many people were unable to go outside the hall as soon as the tremor occurred. Furniture such as a table, chairs, lockers all dropped and facilities were lost. Partial infrastructure was destroyed and there was further loss of life that was beyond compensation.

An earthquake is a natural disaster that can be triggered for different reasons. While Australia has few earthquakes compared to other countries, Australia is the fastest moving continental landmass that collides north and east of Australia and northwest of the Eurasian plate into a pacific plate (Geoscience Australia, n.d). In the interior of the Australian continent, thereby inducing compressive stress. When rocks break deep underground and travel along the fault line, an earthquake must be triggered by sudden stress release.

As seen from the video, earthquakes are potentially dangerous, and lately, man-made earthquakes have been increasingly noted. Increasing quantities of mining and removal of minerals and soil from the earth must add to the complexity of the occurrence, disrupting the earth's ecology (Gibbens,2017). There must be instability due to increased fracking in the surrounding region that may have contributed to the triggering of the earthquake. Different paramedic workers, regional corporations, volunteers, and witnesses were identified for the management of the earthquake.

Reflection on Role of Emergency Medical Services

It looks like a perfect sunny day before the start of the catastrophe, where office workers could be working on their daily tasks. Seeing the video of the footage, it can be inferred that individuals do not have previous warnings from state authorities about the earthquake. People may indeed be panicked because of sudden shaking of the floor and crashing of the installations and cabinets and could be rushing out to the ground for cover.

After the event of the incident, the paramedic team was quick in adopting the emergency response plan. The team was efficient in controlling, commanding, and coordinating the situation. The response team implemented the triage strategy, by giving the priority to victims who needed immediate treatment in the incident area. There were due availability of stretchers and carriers for everyone and were taken to the hospital when required. Though the response management lacked, communication within the staff and outside the community, failed to calm the victims, failed to immediately carry victims towards the hospital instead they laid them in the ground and treating them later. The staff were not clear enough regarding the process and were seen discussing the further required actions in the video numerous times thus wasting the quality time. 

Consider

After evaluating the emergency response plan, it can be concluded that the response plan for controlling the scenario was to treat the victims, and evacuate them. There was a lack of incident command system, control structure, lack of warning from state authorities as well, and damage control system. During the assessment, the following roles of the staff were identified. Ambulance personnel was assigned to relocate and evacuate the victims, paramedical staff’s job was to treat sick or injured people, provide health commander. Provide information to state emergency service regarding the incident.

This type of scenario involves an authorized management structure, such as an incident command system, which ensures that the earthquake response team will follow structured approaches to deal with the disaster. They may add a few more duties, such as managing all health and safety aspects of response personnel, the prevention of safety and injury, the planning and maintenance of entry permits, ensuring that adequate personal protective equipment is used, investigating and reporting all accidents and illnesses, and enforcing regular health and safety plans for acute medical treatment, sanitation, hygiene, etc. (Occupational health and safety administration, n.d)

Additional consideration should be given to animal rescue and their medical treatment, resource management for food, water, sanitation, and medical equipment, state government staff for informing the incident and victims, as well as the appointment of a spokesman for interacting with families and media, for certain types of hazards (World Health Organization, 2017). The strategy should include techniques for providing psychological medical support if necessary, after evacuating the victims and the families, and information about local radio and media outlets to educate them about the incident.

Role of Emergency Medical Services - Part 2

Health care service is the most critical service in terms of caring and rehabilitation of injured patients. Preparedness activities help the emergency medical staff to deliver care during the event and mitigate the impact in the nearby area. The role of the health care professional is during scenarios as seen from the above activity include presenting a coordinated effort that requires a multi-disciplinary approach during the incident area. The professionals are required to demonstrate cooperation and participation of all sectors of the emergency responders and volunteers (Desai, et.al, 2017). The role includes the preparation of the planning process and resource arrangement before the event. This ensures that the plan equips the personnel with due equipment and resources during the event of a disaster which can ensure the safety of personal and family during a disaster.

During the event of a disaster like this, the response could be designed into the identification of the event, the severity of the event, notifying the local public, government officials and media, mobilization of the people nearby and victims from the incident area, implementing the response plan such as triage method, and demobilization of the victims from the incident area towards the hospital (Catlett, et.al, 2012). These roles can be managed by prior planning and distribution of duties before the event and during the incident, these roles can be managed by coordinating with the responsible leader.

If given a command to lead the action plan for an event like these, the planning can include causes of death and illness, such as during this case primary cause will be trauma, burn, and suffocation. Implementing the strategy during the incident is by the team will include search and rescue of the victims or triage, assessing the casualty management by another group, and assistance in temporary shelters. Relocating the victims from the incident area to the hospital, removing the debris and furniture below the victims, and due management for sanitation, hygiene, and other resources for the healthcare personnel. Support and due coordination management will be implemented with intensive care facilities, hospital vulnerability, and mass casualty management. 

Conclusion on Role of Emergency Medical Services

Health care personal plays a critical role in disaster control management and rescuing the victims and animals. Through the current assessment, the researcher gets to learn about the disaster preparedness training, by identification of the disaster enacted video, planning the response management plan, and creating in-depth knowledge regarding the on-site treatment. This assessment allowed the researcher to understand the complexities that can arise during the mass casualty incident response scenario and how to resolve those challenges.

Reference for Role of Emergency Medical Services

Desai, S., Doke, P., & Mohanty, N. (2017). Role of Health Care Workers During Emergency Preparedness in Selected Hospitals of Navi Mumbai. International Journal Of Scientific Stud, 5(3). Retrieved from https://www.ijss-sn.com/uploads/2/0/1/5/20153321/ijss_jun_oa16_-_2017.pdf.

Catlett, C., Jenkins, J., & Millin, M. (2012). Role of Emergency Medical Services in Disaster Response: Resource Document for the National Association of EMS Physicians Position Statement. Prehospital Emergency Care, 15(3).

IFRC, (n.d). Disaster Preparedness. Retrieved from https://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/what-we-do/disaster-and-crisis-management/disaster-preparedness/.

IFRC, (n.d). Types of disasters. Retrieved from https://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/disaster-management/about-disasters/definition-of-hazard/.

Geoscience Australia, (n.d). Earthquake. Retrieved from https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/community-safety/earthquake.

Gibbens, S. (2017). How humans are causing deadly earthquakes. National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/10/human-induced-earthquakes-fracking-mining-video-spd/.

Occupational health and safety administration (OHSA), (n.d). Earthquake preparedness and response. Retrieved from https://www.osha.gov/dts/earthquakes/response_recovery.html

World Health Organization. (2017). Emergency response framework. Geneva: WHO.

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