What kind of work do doctors do in disaster response situations?
I.e. there is a disaster in Haiti. Do doctors actually go down there and dig for bodies from the rubble, stabilizing their condition, etc..? Is it doctors that do that? Recently I read that doctors mainly stay in the field hospital and never really leave due to safety concerns. Is this true? Can a doctor request to go out and actually provide emergency care in the FIELD not the field hospital?
I’m trying to choose a career, and participate in disaster response, but I don’t want to just sit at the field hospital and provide care (I can do that for part of the time though) If someone can clear that up for me, I’d be glad. Thanks.
doctors don’t dig in the rubble. paramedics specialise in extracting and transporting patients. a doctor may augment the care given en route.
paramedics work with emergency workers, firemen or the military to get ppl out of the rubble. paramedics and nurses transport to centralised field hospitals keeping them mostly alive on the way. doctors then fix them up enough so that they survive to get specialised treatment. emergency aid provided includes vaccinations to prevent the spread of disease. the MSF website will have more details as to what care is being provided in haiti.
They do emergency surgery and wound treatment in a field hospital. The people are coming to you in this situation faster than they can treat them so they don’t have time or need to go into the FIELD.
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Triage is exceptionally important, matching the overall needs of the population with the limited resources available.
Both safety and need (it’s wasteful to be wandering about, more efficient to have victims gather at treatment locales) argue against straying afield, especially since there will be almost no resources available, and perhaps not even landmarks to find your way. That happened after Katrina: the mayor of Bay St. Louis, MS, I’m told, was going to use his address as an example of the devestation in a dog-and-pony for visiting dignitaries after that storm, but he couldn’t find it!
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doctors don’t dig in the rubble. paramedics specialise in extracting and transporting patients. a doctor may augment the care given en route.
paramedics work with emergency workers, firemen or the military to get ppl out of the rubble. paramedics and nurses transport to centralised field hospitals keeping them mostly alive on the way. doctors then fix them up enough so that they survive to get specialised treatment. emergency aid provided includes vaccinations to prevent the spread of disease. the MSF website will have more details as to what care is being provided in haiti.
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