Emergency and Disaster Preparedness
Recent events, including the COVID-19 pandemic and historic extremes of weather and climate related disasters, highlight the imperative nature of emergency and disaster preparedness to school nursing practice.
The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the critical and essential importance of the education sector as well as it’s vulnerability. Schools provide the tools children need to succeed in life and contribute to society, support optimal family functioning, and are the heart of their communities. Schools often serve as emergency shelters and community resource facilities and may provide social support that contributes to a student’s sense of safety after a disaster. Yet, schools are extremely vulnerable to disasters that disrupt the educational process, leading to disparate and potentially life-long losses in learning, and negative social, emotional, and mental health impacts (U.S. Department of Eduction: Office of Civil Rights [OCR], 2021). The broad and complex impact of major disasters such as hurricanes, fires and flooding have socio-ecological implications for children, schools and communities that affect resilience and recovery. These impacts may spread to other communities because of mass displacement of students from their homes to other locations in the wake of the disaster.
Unprecedented challenges during disasters threaten normal educational operations. School closures related to COVID-19 exposed weaknesses in the resilience of school systems. Rising occurrences of severe weather events, including droughts, wildfires and resulting poor air quality, extreme heat, and heavy rains and flooding exacerbate these weaknesses.
