When Disaster Strikes: Nurse Leadership, Nursing Care, and Teamwork Saves Lives. A report from Charting Nursing's Future, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF); May 2016. 8 pages. (For a PDF version visit http://www.rwfj.org and type "Charting Nursing's Future" in the search engine. Cost: Free.)

This succinct, fact-based, and innovation-rich report is a must read for nurse leaders, who should share it with nurses on the front lines of care, in every setting. The report's project team notes that "the past half-century has brought a dramatic increase in the occurrence of emerging infectious diseases and in the frequency and intensity of natural and other disasters" (p. 2). Team members identify 4 cycles of disasters: Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. Nurses need to be prepared because they are involved in all 4 cycles and have been shown to improve survival odds and better health outcomes for affected individuals and populations.

The report chronicles the experience of 4 events: the arrival of Ebola virus disease in the United States; the Joplin, Missouri, Tornado; Hurricane Sandy; and the Boston Marathon bombing. Through an examination of these disasters, the brief "showcases nurse-led innovations, policies that support the delivery of care, and practices that offer important lessons for future crises" (p. 1). While most of us are familiar with these 4 events, few of us know the details behind the headlines, the lessons learned from them, and the resulting recommendations for disaster preparedness. Nurse leaders from the hospitals and communities involved provide wise insights from their experiences. These include the following:

* Ebola virus disease: How teamwork and preparation saves lives, from Nebraska Medicine and Emory University; and how poor communication among a nurse, a physician, and a patient led to the discharge of the first patient with Ebola virus disease on US soil, from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

* The Joplin, Missouri, Tornado: Information on medical-surgical needs, along with managing policy challenges and solutions, from The Freeman Health System (the only hospital left intact after the disaster).

* Hurricane Sandy: Problem solving to save lives, featuring the ingenuity of the New York Visiting Nurses Association to reach neighborhoods overlooked by emergency responders.

* The Boston Marathon bombing: How a city with multiple hospitals and public health systems responded together, after years of meeting to prepare for disasters.

This report tells important stories and also provides references, along with information on multiple agencies available to nurse leaders. The report ends with steps nurses can take now to prepare for future disasters.

Designing and Integrating a Disaster Preparedness Curriculum.... Readying Nurses for the Worst, Sharon Stanley and Thola Bennecoff Wolanski (with 14 contributing authors), Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International; 2015. 409 pages. Cost: $59.95.

The authors of this book provide a blueprint for incorporating disaster preparedness education into an already crowded nursing curriculum. (The RWJF report described earlier notes that nursing students get just 4 hours on this subject in their academic preparation). While multiple agencies provide guidelines to nurse leaders, a book aimed at curriculum could help frontline educators develop or customize training programs for communities, hospitals, or public health systems. This book, which has received praise from leaders in multiple settings, including the US Public Health System, the American Red Cross, and the National League for Nursing Commission for Nursing Education Accreditation, could serve as a reference for interprofessional disaster preparedness teams.

The chapters are as follows:

1. Pouring the Foundation;

2. Simulation in Disaster Education;

3. American Red Cross Disaster Health and Sheltering for Nursing Students Course;

4. Preparing Students for Disaster: A Leadership Approach;

5. An Overview of What Works and What Doesn't Work in Exercise Planning;

6. Integrating Disaster Preparedness Education Into a Community/Public Health Nursing Course;

7. Disaster Nursing as a Standalone Course;

8. Offering a Comprehensive Curriculum for a Graduate Degree in Disaster Nursing;

9. Disaster Education and the APRN; and

10. Pulling (It All) Together.

Nurse leaders should consider reviewing, or asking their educators to review, Stanley and Wolanski's compilation as a possible on-site reference book for their organizations.

-Elizabeth (Betty) Falter, BSN, MS, RN, NEA-BC