With the outbreak of the pandemic, healthcare providers have taken the front line, battling the disease and protecting their patients and fellow staff. From facing supply shortages to dealing with a huge influx of patients, the nurses have to cope with any sort of adversities at this point in time. It is natural for them to feel burnt out with the number of COVID cases surging every single day. They have to provide their services for long hours, isolated from family, and prevent contracting the disease. It is most obvious that they would face a higher level of emotional and physical exhaustion. In fact, they need to be alert in case of any kind of disaster.
Joanne Langan, a professor of Nursing at Trudy Busch School of Nursing, is known for her dedication to helping people in the face of any kind of adversities. She has prior experience in the military, dealt with patients who survived earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes. After facing certain challenges in her own life, a team from Saint Louis University and Langan travelled to Israel to learn about disaster planning. She wrote a book called Preparing Nurses for Disaster Management on her experience when in Israel. When asked about her experience there, she said, “One of the greatest takeaways from Israel was their resolve to treat all patients with respect as individual human beings. This was no different for the innocent victim or the perpetrator. Unfortunately, Israel was dealing with multiple incidents such as suicide bombers. They still conducted multiple drills/year to continueto learn and improve their disaster response and recovery efforts.” After completing her course in Israel, Langan wanted to impart whatever knowledge she had gathered and created a course for the nurses at the Valentine School of Nursing. Her students also sense her passion for the subject and desire to help the ones in need. Subarna Basu