Abstract
Professional health care societies play a critical role in promoting excellence in patient care, educating and certifying their members on evidence-based practices, and pursuing relevant research agendas to advance the science in the field. Disaster nursing is a subspecialty of professional nursing characterized by a unique knowledge base and set of skills and abilities not used in normal daily health care activities. A disaster or large-scale public health emergency creates a sudden, unanticipated surge of patients with health care needs that far exceeds the capacity of the health care system. This creates a significant burden and risk for the nurses participating in the response. Recognizing the critical need to define scope of practice and core standards for disaster nursing and to promote greater nursing leadership in disaster preparedness and response, a group of subject matter experts established a professional society to provide leadership and guidance. The strategic planning process as described by M. Kwestel et al was used as the overarching framework for describing the design, development, and implementation of the new society. Establishment of the Society for the Advancement of Disaster Nursing is a definitive step toward improving national nurse readiness in the United States.