Military Nurses' Experience in Disaster Response

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand the essence of military nurses' lived experience of responding to disasters. Specific aims were to explore experiences of military nurses who had been deployed into disaster environments and to examine the impact the disaster responses had on their lives. A phenomenological approach grounded in the existential phenomenological works of Merleau-Ponty guided the study. Using purposive, snowballing technique and e-mailed information flyers, single face-to-face interviews lasting 27 to 70 minutes were conducted and digitally recorded, and the recordings were professionally transcribed. Twenty-three nurses from the United States Air Force, Army, Navy, and U.S. Public Health Service participated in the study. Line-by-line analysis was completed by employing hermeneutics to identify key words, phrases, and themes that described the essence of the experience. The process sought to identify specific meaning in parts of each transcript related to the complete document and across all transcripts illuminating their experience. Five polar themes and one additional theme emerged from the data: "Nature of War" versus "Nature of Disaster,""Known" versus "Unknown,""Structured" versus "Chaos," "Prepared" versus "Making Do," "Strength" versus "Emotionality," and "Existential Growth." Outcomes of the study indicated that disaster training should become part of core nursing curriculum, military training should encompass disaster preparedness, military nurses need instruction in dealing with media during crises, and psychological support teams should be included in disaster deployments. Nurses who have deployed to disasters need time to reintegrate into their jobs and communities. This study draws attention to the need for better pre-deployment disaster training and preparedness. It also identifies the need for psychological support during and after disaster responses to help the military better care for its health care providers.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 23, 2010
Accession Number
ADA630624

Entities

People

  • Felecia M. Rivers

Organizations

  • University of Tennessee system

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Combat Readiness
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Disasters
  • Education
  • Health Care
  • Health Services
  • Humanitarian Assistance
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military History
  • Military Science
  • Military Training
  • Patient Care
  • Personnel Management
  • Public Health
  • United States
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
  • Medical or Health Care Field.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.