Leaders from across the health system have been stationed at our Emergency Medical Services Command Center since the first news of Hurricane Irene heading our way.
Bringing together the employees of North Shore-LIJ Health System during emergency situations and natural disasters.
As a staff nurse, who remained at the hospital throughout the weekend, I found this a very difficult and challenging experience.
ReplyDeleteAs one of the nurses receiving evacuated patients, there was a lack of communication. On several occassions evacuated nurses were unable to reach their managers/administrators for further directives.
Leadership/teamwork, management went home, while nursing staff was forced to stay, or suffer disiplinary action.(Something I hope will be looked at further).
Nursing staff were overwhelmed, overburdened. Patients are our priority, but safety must always come first.
It is my opinion, we were prepared for the hurricane, but we need to take the lessons learned from this evacuation process.