Disaster Nursing and Emergency Preparedness for Chemical, Biological and Radiological Terrorism and Other Hazards, by Tener Goodwin Veenema; 2nd edition; Springer Publishing Company; 2007; 680 pages; $95.00.
Nurses and other healthcare professionals are ready to handle just about any type of individual patient medical emergency, but, when faced with several hundreds or thousands of contaminated causalities that could be generated from a "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) event, these same professionals may not be as ready as needed. Dr Veenema's 2nd edition of her acclaimed disaster and emergency preparedness reference for nurses can do a lot to get not only nurses but the entire medical community ready for such an event.
This 5-part compendium includes 31 chapters on topics ranging from leadership in disasters and crisis communications to environmental emergencies and radiological incidents. The authors of each chapter are well-known healthcare experts with extensive experience in the subject matter. The editor has also provided 13 appendices with additional information on Internet resources for disaster preparedness and concise summaries for clinical recognition and treatment of high-profile biological WMDs.
As an experienced emergency planner and public health professional, I decided to put Veenema's 2nd edition to the test. The Department of Homeland Security has provided more than 3 000 pages of guidance on managing both natural and WMD catastrophic disasters, using the Incident Command System (ICS) through the National Incident Management System (NIMS). Contributors to the 2nd edition have been able to present basic concepts and principles of ICS and NIMS in a concise fashion. Chapters dealing with leadership and coordination in disasters (chapter 2) and disaster management (chapter 8) can better prepare the reader for taking ICS and NIMS certification courses from FEMA.
Veenema does not ignore what may be the single largest epidemiological disaster of modern times, the Milwaukee Cryptosporidium outbreak. While this biological disaster had relative low numbers of fatalities (estimated to be more than 100), an estimated 400 000 Milwaukee residents became ill with more than 4 000 hospitalized. The role of the nurse and healthcare facilities in the early detection of biological WMD incidents is presented in Chapter 20, Surveillance Systems for Detection of Biological Events, and Chapter 22, Early Recognition and Detection of Biological Events. Both of these chapters should be mandatory reading for nursing students.
This book will make an excellent edition to any medial library and is a must for schools of nursing. As more disaster preparedness and planning courses are included in nursing curriculums, this text will certainly become a classroom classic.
-Homer C. Emery, PhD
Senior Environmental Scientist, Bexar County Local Emergency Planning, Committee, San Antonio, Texas