Disaster & Emergency Preparedness
What is the primary role of a public health nurse during a community-wide disaster?
Protecting population health through assessment, prevention, education, and coordination of resources.
What is the term for the number of new cases of a disease in a population during a specific period?
Incidence
What are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age called?
Social determinants of health.
What level of prevention includes immunizations?
Primary prevention
Name one population considered vulnerable to health disparities.
Examples include children, older adults, people experiencing homelessness, low-income families, and people with disabilities.
What type of triage system is commonly used during mass casualty incidents to prioritize patients?
START (Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment).
What is the difference between an epidemic and a pandemic?
An epidemic is an increase in disease cases above what is normally expected in a region; a pandemic spreads across multiple countries or continents.
A family cannot afford fresh fruits and vegetables because the closest grocery store is 15 miles away. What community health issue does this represent?
Food insecurity and limited food access, potentially related to living in a food desert.
A nurse performs blood pressure screenings at a community health fair. What level of prevention is this?
Secondary prevention.
Why are older adults particularly vulnerable during extreme heat events?
They may have impaired thermoregulation, chronic illnesses, limited mobility, or medications that increase heat-related risks.
During a hurricane evacuation, a patient dependent on home oxygen cannot evacuate independently. What should the community nurse prioritize?
What is coordinating safe evacuation and ensuring access to oxygen and necessary medical support?
A school reports 15 students with vomiting and diarrhea after a school lunch. What should the public health nurse suspect?
A possible foodborne illness outbreak.
A patient repeatedly misses appointments because they do not have reliable transportation. What should the nurse explore?
Transportation barriers and available community resources.
A patient with a previous stroke attends a rehabilitation program to improve mobility. What level of prevention is this?
Tertiary prevention.
A homeless patient has poorly controlled diabetes and no place to store insulin. What should the nurse do?
Connect the patient with accessible healthcare, medication storage resources, shelter services, and social support.
Following Hurricane Katrina, what major failure contributed to increased illness and death among vulnerable populations?
What is failures in communication, evacuation planning, transportation, emergency coordination, and access to healthcare?
During an outbreak investigation, why is identifying the common exposure important?
It helps identify the likely source and transmission route so further cases can be prevented.
Why might providing health education alone fail to improve health outcomes in a community experiencing poverty?
Education cannot eliminate structural barriers such as lack of money, transportation, housing, food, or healthcare access.
What is the first step in the community health nursing process when planning a community intervention?
Conduct a community assessment to identify needs, strengths, and health priorities.
Why are children especially vulnerable to environmental hazards such as lead exposure?
Their developing nervous systems are particularly susceptible to lead toxicity.
A community shelter has 200 residents. Several have chronic illnesses, some require insulin, and others need oxygen. What should the public health nurse do first?
What is conduct a rapid health assessment to identify immediate medical needs, high-risk individuals, medications, and necessary equipment?
A community has an increase in tuberculosis cases. Identify TWO public health nursing interventions to control transmission.
Identify and evaluate cases, conduct contact tracing, arrange testing, support treatment adherence, and provide education about transmission and prevention.
A community assessment reveals high rates of diabetes, limited grocery access, and few safe places to exercise. Identify TWO population-level interventions.
Establish mobile produce markets or food assistance partnerships and develop safe walking spaces or community exercise programs.
A community has increasing rates of childhood asthma. What data should the nurse collect before developing an intervention?
Asthma prevalence and hospitalization rates, environmental exposures, housing conditions, air quality, access to care, and demographic information.
A community has high infant mortality rates, limited prenatal care, and transportation barriers. What should the public health nurse prioritize?
Improve access to early and consistent prenatal care through outreach, transportation assistance, education, and community partnerships.