Medicine and Ethical Disaster Management

The federal government spent billions of dollars preparing the country for terrorism and disasters. The Center for disease Control requested that physicians stockpile medications such as Cipro and other antibiotics. They trained ministers and social workers to provide disaster counseling and emergency workers to contain the situation. Healthcare workers want disaster training to become part of nursing and medical school curriculum. On the other hand, some see disaster courses as an unethical way to gain a profit.

The Emergency Medicine Learning and Resource Center at www.emlrc.com presents the 2009 International Disaster  Management Conference to be held February 19-22, 2009 at The Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Florida, www.rosencentre.com. All people involved in emergency preparation, management, and response will benefit from this course. Doctors, nurses, EMS, and mass fatality responders will be “preparing freedom’s Lifeline,” by taking a course like this one.

 

After receiving a three year grant, The West Virginia  Department of Health and Human Resources, www.wvdhhr.org, trained community responders throughout the state. At locations such as The Earl Ray Tomblin Center in Logan it trained nurses, doctors, ministers, and social workers to teach the course, The Psychological Impact of Disaster and Terrorism. It was an outstanding course, and it offered continuing education credits that these professionals require for their licenses. Many took the course for the credits, and less than 10% taught the course after becoming certified as a Trained Community Responder, TCR.

 

Mental Health is affected by disasters such as Hurricanes Hugo, Andrew, and Rita, floods and fires. Ethical as well as unethical people arrive to provide services. All must be properly credentialed to provide counseling. There ar  e numerous disaster mental health Web sites to verify credentials such as www.aaets.org, American Academy of Experts in Traumatic stress, www.aamfi, Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, www.redcross.org, American Red Cross, www.fema.org, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and www.disasterpsych.org, Disaster Psychiatry Outreach.

 

Doctors, nurses, paramedics, and EMS train for disasters in Basic Disaster Life Support Classes. The first class in West Virginia was offered in Morgantown August 8-10, 2008. Emergency room physicians from West Virginia Hospitals and personnel from Pittsburg produced the course with hopes of WVU becoming a training site, www.wvu.edu. Trainers must be ethical, and courses must follow medical ethics.