ESSAY: Global Events

Suppose that within your health care organization there is no formal process or structure for health care professionals to volunteer time and services in times of global need. You would like to develop a proposal for establishing a process that would allow nurses and other health care professionals to secure time off to work with a specific worldwide organization, to provide health care services during global events. As part of the proposal, you would need to provide background research to support your request.

Conduct background research on either one of the following to support the proposal you would develop:

Choose one worldwide epidemic, such as the 2009 flu pandemic, 2009 mumps outbreak, 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak, the recent Ebola virus epidemic, or another epidemic. Research articles that focus on how the initial outbreak was handled; the role of social attitudes and issues of race, class, and gender in responding to the outbreak; barriers to people receiving proper health care; and the role of nursing in providing health care services related to the epidemic.
Choose one natural disaster, such as the earthquakes in Haiti, Pakistan, or Nepal; Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar; the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, or any other natural disaster that brought a worldwide response. Research articles that focus on the initial response to the disaster; the role of social attitudes and issues of race, class, and gender in responding to the disaster; barriers to survivors receiving health care; and the role of nursing in providing health care services related to the disaster.
Requirements
For this assessment, develop background research that would support a proposal for an organizational process allowing health care professionals to volunteer time and services when global events happen. First, identify the global event you will be using in your research, and then:

Explain how the local and national (meaning the nation in which the event took place) communities responded to the event. Who responded? How long did the first response take? How did health care providers respond?
Explain how social attitudes, as well as issues of race, class, gender, or other factors may have influenced the response to the event. Be sure you consider not only the response of the home country, but the global response as well.
Describe barriers to health care services for the people impacted by the event. Some barriers may be obvious, and other barriers less obvious; try to consider multiple aspects.
Explain the role of international health organizations and altruistic organizations in providing health care services related to the global event.
Explain the role of the professional nurse in providing health care services related to the global event. Consider scope of practice when working professionally out of one’s area of license—either nationally or globally.

ANSWER

Introduction

Healthcare issues and other epidemic cases of global concern always need the services of many healthcare professionals with multidisciplinary backgrounds to respond to them. The challenge however lies in the fact that such healthcare professionals are attached to their own organizations and there lies no formal procedure in which they can act as volunteers to offer both their time and service for such unprecedented events. Ideally, there ought to be a procedure through which healthcare organizations engage their employees in such humanitarian issues. One of such a global epidemic that happened in the recent past, is the Ebola virus which occurred in three West African countries and in some of the worst interior areas of such countries. This essay is meant to explain how the world responded to the issue, barriers to healthcare delivery and the role of the professional nurse in this situation.

How Local and National Communities Responded to the Event

The Ebola Virus occurred in remote villages especially in the rural areas of the central and Western part of Africa. The countries greatly affected were Congo, Uganda, Gabon and the Ivory Coast. Such a disease is of international concern because of the probability of spread to other countries. It therefore needed a coordinated international response. The response of the Local and National Communities was swift. On suspicion of an Ebola case, the ministry of Health firstly notified the World Health Organization. What followed was a rapid and immediate assessment of public health risks which gave possibility of five active cases. Rapid response team from both National and local