Nurse Judgment Questions
- The risks of sharing public responses over social media include the chance of a message being lost in people’s feeds and being misused to portray the situation in a different light for sensationalism. In turn, the benefits include rapid transmission of critical data, enhanced cooperation with parents and the public, and a greater opportunity to involve volunteers.
- To prevent active shooter situations from developing to such a point, it is essential to encourage people to lock up their guns in safe storage and teach people how to handle cases that involve firearms more efficiently.
The Affected Part of the City
In the provided simulation, the reported situation occurs in Casper Park, which has a population of 8,895, of whom 94% are adults. ABC Daycare, which is the location of the incident, was created with affordability in mind. It is located close to the affordable housing project, the town hall, and the Sentinel Hospital.
There is a bus route that passes close to the targeted building and a bus stop across the road. This line is guaranteed to be disrupted for the entire city. The police department and emergency medical services will be requested to be present at the location, while the evacuation of the neighboring buildings may also be required. Since ABC Daycare has both evacuation and shelter-in-place plans, it is necessary to consider how the situation unfolds to pinpoint the exact disruption caused by the incident.
The Potential Impact
Depending on the action route selected by the daycare center’s workers, children may be exposed to violence, become panicked, and even get harmed. Aside from physical injuries, the short-term impact on children includes emotional breakdowns, feelings of insecurity, nightmares, and distancing from others (Schonfeld & Demaria, 2020). Adults may develop paranoia and become overprotective of their offspring.
The long-term outcome will include trauma symptoms that may lead to mental instabilities. It may present itself as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and acute stress disorder among both children and their parents (Schonfeld & Demaria, 2020). Adults are likely to share the same feelings and begin seeking an alternative to the existing emergency plans if any harm occurs. In the long term, the parents will request that ABC Daycare and the city as a whole improve their security measures to prevent such incidents.
The situation will have a significant adverse impact on the community as a whole. In the short term, the disruption will halt public transport services within the city, as the neighborhood is located close to its center. Furthermore, the roads will be blocked by emergency responders and panicked parents. City hall will not be accessible to the public, and the hospital may be too overburdened to handle patients at a steady pace.
Emotional and financial recovery of the entire neighborhood will take a prolonged period, depending on the actions of the shooter. The insurance claims may be catastrophic for ABC Daycare, while the affected individuals will require special care regardless of their visible traumas (“Disaster relief & recovery services,” n.d.). Healthcare resources are likely to be limited due to overwhelming demand for mental and physical help.
The Emergency Management Team
People assigned to resolve the situation in this city include both law enforcement officers and healthcare professionals. However, other stakeholders who may face potential threats to their lives and property must also be informed regarding the procedure. Staff from firms participating in preparedness training must remain knowledgeable regarding the actions planned by emergency management teams to respond adequately to their activities.
The mayor must personally be involved in the situation and reassure any concerned citizens. The Sentinel Hospital’s top managerial personnel must be reachable alongside the chief police officers. If evacuation of nearby buildings is necessary and the shortage of personnel becomes a burden, the fire department can also assist in resolving the issue.
Strategies to Develop Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans
The development of a guideline for emergency action within an area must account for its specific circumstances. The first phase relies on enhancing the structural resilience of potential targets. The population’s requirements and resources must be assessed. The unpredictability of disasters requires stakeholders involved in the city’s services and its inhabitants to enhance the overall stability of these services (Fenema & Romme, 2020). Thus, an interprofessional team must be built to address all potential threats within this zone whilst leveraging existing capabilities.
The second phase requires activating relevant teams to minimize the threat. A task force project must be created as a part of this strategy. There is a need to create a list of all available services within an area and establish a disaster communication line between them (Fenema & Romme, 2020). The latent measures must be put in place and upheld at all times.
Short-activation-delay teams are a feasible method for responding to multiple emergencies, although they may be too costly for many communities to maintain (Fenema & Romme, 2020). However, it is still possible to provide additional training to all potential participants among service workers in the area. Ensuring that each individual possesses a limited yet applicable set of competencies that can improve disaster outcomes is a necessity for public organizations (Fenema & Romme, 2020). In general, organizations must prioritize sharing essential data to ensure people do not panic and to support cooperation during an incident, while preserving a portion of their resources to mitigate critical infrastructure loss.
The third stage is relief activities after such a situation, which require a different construct: support structures for communities. Funds to mitigate the critical damage must be available at all times. Furthermore, professionals who can assess and help negate long-term mental and physical damage are to be accounted for within the city’s budget. Specific solutions, such as psychiatrists, temporary housing centers, and similar services, depend on the local community’s needs.
In this case, children and their parents must be part of this system, as their actions and reactions determine the outcome. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends including children in preparedness drills to ensure appropriate behavior during critical situations (Schonfeld et al., 2020). In turn, parents must comprehend how to prevent further threats from arising and support their offspring who go through such an experience. Furthermore, there is a necessity to develop coping abilities among children and parents that are proven to be helpful after one’s exposure to violence (Schonfeld & Demaria, 2020). Therefore, a psychiatrist’s services must be a part of a response plan.
Risks and Benefits of Using Social Media During Emergencies
It is easier for emergency services to deliver essential messages to individuals via their phones, thereby preventing unnecessary disruptions or harm caused by volunteers’ actions. Social media platforms allow people to share vital information within designated groups efficiently; as such, they enable authorities to target particular groups of individuals with ease. In general, the use of this strategy during emergencies has a positive impact on public injuries stemming from the incident (Bateman et al., 2021).
People are likely to remain alert throughout the emergency and avoid overburdening critical communication lines by knowing that the actions are being taken to stop it. Additionally, the use of social media during disasters allows service providers to build a heatmap of messages and accurately track the location of an incident (Rusho et al., 2021). Therefore, posts on such networks provide significant value to all involved parties.
However, there is a risk that malicious actors will misuse this data. First, in the presented case, the perpetrator can rely on social media updates to revise their plan and prolong their nefarious actions. Moreover, others can misinterpret one’s posts and use them to create untruthful news purely for sensationalistic value, which will then spread faster than one’s actual message (Rusho et al., 2021). It may be used to spread panic among the general public or to attract unwanted bystanders to the incident site.
Communication Messages
The message for the community at large: An active shooter in the Casper Park area. Lock your doors, do not go outside, and be prepared to find shelter or run.
The message for children’s parents: An active shooter situation at ABC Daycare; law enforcement response is already underway; please do not visit the site and cooperate with the involved authorities.
References
Bateman, G., Abdel Haleem, H., & Majumdar, A. (2021). Is user-generated social media content useful for informing planning and management of emergency events? – An investigation of an active shooting event in a U.S. airport. Case Studies on Transport Policy, 9(3), 1015-1025.
American Red Cross (n.d.). Disaster relief & recovery services.
Fenema, P. C., & Romme, A. G. (2020). Latent organizing for responding to emergencies: Foundations for research. Journal of Organization Design, 9(1), 11.
Rusho, M. A., Ahmed, M. A., & Sadri, A. M. (2021). Social media response and crisis communications in active shootings during COVID-19 pandemic. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 11.
Schonfeld, D. J., & Demaria, T. (2020). Supporting children after school shootings. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 67(2), 397-411.
Schonfeld, D. J., Melzer-Lange, M., Hashikawa, A. N., Gorski, P. A., Krug, S., Baum, C., Chung, S., Dahl-Grove, D., Davies, H. D., Dziuban, E., Gardner, A., Griese, S., Needle, S., Simpson, J., Hoffman, B. D., Agran, P. F., Hirsh, M. P., Johnston, B. D., & Kendi, S. (2020). Participation of children and adolescents in live crisis drills and exercises. Pediatrics, 146(3).