Abstract
The impact and devastation from national disasters pose imminent risk to large populations. If trained in disaster response and following evidence-based practice standards, the Nurse Practitioner (NP) could be prepared to adapt to any setting or surrounding, utilizing their full educational and health care training. Currently there are no written guidelines during disasters to manage the various clinical conditions. Using a Delphi technique, this exploratory study investigated the multidisciplinary understanding about the disaster NP role. Key findings included: 1. Across four groups of disaster responders, there was confusion about the disaster NP role, indicating a need for role clarity. 2. Among NP respondents, there was agreement that practice was limited in a disaster compared to everyday practice, identifying no scope of practice and lack of role knowledge as causes. 3. To help understand the disaster NP role, simulated field training was the most highly valued and the least was individual training. 4. Regarding services delivered, the most valued were the disaster NPs ability to perform urgent services with competence and skill, NPs ability to recognize need to triage to higher level of care and NPs acknowledging emergent skill limitations. Having one defined scope of practice could establish guidelines for practice, reducing legal risk and eliminating role confusion, and improve victim access to care. Furthermore, standardized guidelines could be disseminated to other disaster responders and victims, which could eliminate duplicity of resources and practice barriers across local, state, tribal, and federal boundaries.
Sigma Membership
Iota Sigma
Type
Dissertation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
N/A
Research Approach
Pilot/Exploratory Study
Keywords:
Emergency Responders, Disaster Preparedness, Guidelines for Practice
Advisor
Jan Boller
Second Advisor
Ellen Daroszewski
Third Advisor
John Commander
Fourth Advisor
Stuart Long
Degree
DNP
Degree Grantor
Western University of Health Sciences
Degree Year
2014
Recommended Citation
Dunniway, Frances, "An exploratory study to shape a disaster nurse practitioner scope of practice" (2023). Dissertations. 366.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/dissertations/366
Rights Holder
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All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.
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Review Type
None: Degree-based Submission
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2023-03-15
Full Text of Presentation
wf_yes
Description
This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 3631359; ProQuest document ID: 1566173448. The author still retains copyright.